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SEVENTEENTH ' YEA%! 

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fflo. 1. 




MIND STUDIES 



FOR 



YOUNG TEACHERS. 



By JEROME ALLEN, Ph.D., 

EDITOR OF THE "SCHOOL JOURNAL," (N. Y.,) " TEACHERS' INSTITUTE," (N. Y.,1 
FORMERLY PRINCIPAL OF THE ST. CLOUD (MINN.) STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 




New York and Chicago. 

E. L KELLOGG & CO., 

1887. 



LB, I OS I 
.AH 



Copyright, 1887, 

E. L. KELLOGG & CO., 

New York. 



PREFACE 



Theee are many teachers who know little about 
psychology, and who have a desire to be better informed 
concerning its principles, especially its relation to the 
work of teaching. For the aid of such, this book has 
been prepared. But it is not a psychology, — only an 
introduction to it, aiming to give some fundamental 
principles, together with something concerning the phi- 
losophy of education. Its method is subjective rather 
than objective, leading the student to watch mental pro- 
cesses, and draw his own conclusions. Little* of mind- 
science, that is of use to the teacher, can be learned by 
reading books. No subject is more dependent upon ob- 
servation and experiment than this. When mind-growth 
and mental activities are understood by teachers, instruc- 
tion will become scientific, and not, as is now too fre- 
quently the case, empirical. If this little volume shall 
serve to hasten the time when teaching shall be more a 
profession and less a vocation, the author will have ac- 
complished all he designed. 

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK. 

Edward Everett Hale, in his book, "How to Do It/' 
discusses the matter of reading. The substance of what 
he says may be given in the form of the following ten 
rules: 

1. Don't try to read everything. 2. Read two books 
on the same subject, one solid, one for pleasure. 3. 
Don't read a book for the sake of saying "I have read it." 



PREFACE. 



4. Review what you read. 5. Read with a pencil in 
hand. 6. Use a blank book. 7. Condense whatever 
you copy. 8. Read less and remember it. 9. One 
hour for light reading should have one hour for solid 
reading. 10. Whatever reading you do, do it regularly. 
These rules, with little modification, will apply to the 
way this volume should be used. On another page will 
be found a list of books which the author has made free 
use of in preparing it, and it would be well for all those 
who study these pages to buy one of the volumes men- 
tioned, and read it at the same time this one is read. 
Discussions of the topics presented with others who are 
intelligently interested in the subject under consideration 
will very much assist progress, interest, and comprehen- 
sion. If any topic is not fully understood, it should not 
be left until some light is thrown upon it. At all events, 
interest will come from an understanding of the subject 
discussed. Jekome Allek". 

New York, May, 1887. 



PUBLISHERS' NOTE. 

The volumes already published by us* have had an unprecedented sale, 
when it is remembered that ten years ago it was hardly possible to sell an 
educational work. They have roused a spirit of inquiry; better methods 
are being adopted the whole country over; in fact, a New Education, better 
fitted to express the advancement of the nineteenth century, is coming in. 
Clear and practical exposition of the great fundamental truths of educa- 
tion in books of a moderate cost and of good workmanship is a need of the 
times, and this volume is put forth to meet it. Other volumes will follow 
and discuss the subjects of Psychology; Principles, Practice, and History 
of Education; Methods; the Primary School ; the Kindergarten; Manual 
Training, etc. We believe that teachers who seek to teach in the highest 
style the art of teaching has attained will want this series. 

E. L. Kellogg & Co. 

* Parker's Talks on Teaching; Patridge's " Quincy Methods," illustrated; 
Tate's Philosophy of Education; Payne's Lectures on the Science and Art 
of Education; Fitch's Lectures on Teaching; Shaw and Donnell's School 
Devices; Shaw's National Question-Book; Kellogg's School Management; 
Johnson's Education by Doing, etc., etc. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. How to Study Mind 1 

II. Some Facts in Mind growth 5 

III. Development 9 

The First Stage 9 

The Second Stage 13 

IV. Mind-incentives 16 

V. A Few Fundamental Principles Settled. ... 21 

VI. Temperaments 24 

Nervous 25 

Sanguine 26 

Bilious . 26 

Lymphatic ............ 27 

Temperaments in Education ....... 28 

VII. The Training of the Senses . 33 

A Few Suggestions 36 

First Course : . . . . 37 

Second Course 38 

Third Course 39 

VIII. Attention 41 

Motives 43 

IX. Perception 45 

X. Abstraction 48 

Methods of Developing the Power of Ab- 
straction 51 

XI. Faculties used in Abstract Thinking .... 57 

The Reason 59 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

XII. From the Subjective to the Conceptive ... 61 

XIII. The Will . . ■ 65 

XIV. Diseases of the Will . . . . 71 

XV. Kinds of Memory . . . 78 

Incidents of Disordered Memories .... 82 

XVI. The Sensibilities 88 

XVII. Relation of the Sensibilities to the Will .... 91 

XVIII. The Training of the Sensibilities 96 

XIX. Relation of the Sensibilities to Morality . . . 101 

XX. The Imagination 105 

XXI. Imagination in its Maturity 113 

XXII. The Education of the Moral Sense 117 

Note.— For a full outline of Topics and References see Index, page 121. 



BOOKS FOR REFERENCE AND STUDY. 

Philosophy of Education Tate. 

Theory and Practice of Teaching. . . . . . David P. Page. 

Lectures on the Science of Education . . . Joseph Payne. 

Talks on Teaching Francis W. Parker. 

Self -culture James Freeman Clarke. 

History of Pedagogy Gabriel Compayre. 

Philosophy of Education . . . Johann Karl Rosenkranz. 

Mental Philosophy Joseph Haven. 

Teachers' Hand-book of Psychology James Sully. 

Psychology. The Cognitive Powers . . . James McCosh. 
Mental Science and Culture Edward Brooks. 



MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG 
TEACHERS. 



<£f)aj)ttr *♦ 

HOW TO STUDY MIND. 

At first we must learn to watch our own mental oper- 
ations. For example, we can ascertain why we retain 
one class of facts better than others, how the mind is 
affected by circumstances without us, and how by the 
condition of the body. We can also study mind by 
noticing mental phenomena in others. How do our 
pupils arrive at their knowledge? What distracts them? 
When do they succeed ? What interests them ? There are 
two methods: introspective — that which is from within ; 
the objective — that which is from without. These con- 
stitute the two ways by which we can come to an accu- 
rate knowledge of mental operations. 

At the beginning it will not be easy to notice accu- 
rately the workings of mind. How can it be promoted? 
Write down from day to day what you observe in your- 
self and others. You will probably say something like 
the following : 

"This morning a circumstance came to my mind 
which I had not thought of for years ; nothing seemed 



2 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

to suggest it: it flashed upon me in an instant without 
apparent cause. I will watch my mind for other sug- 
gestions." " I notice that it is easier for me to remem- 
ber some things than others; for example, a tune has 
been running in my head for hours; I cannot banish it; 
it is an annoyance : while other things I want to remem- 
ber are totally forgotten at the very time it would be of 
great value for me to remember them." " I notice that 
when I use a striking illustration in a recitation, or tell 
an interesting story, my pupils are all attention, and re- 
member without an effort. Why is this?" 

These suppositional notes will show what our readers 
who desire to study their own minds must do. Com- 
mence at once, if possible, in connection with others 
who are similarly situated. Compare notes frequently, 
and in some quiet hour discuss what you have written, 
not for disputation, but to ascertain how the mind takes 
knowledge, how it thinks, what hinders its growth and 
what accelerates and stimulates it. Classify the notes 
as far as possible, and arrange them under the heads : 
1. Observation ; 2. Inference. You will infer 
many things, although at first you will conclude but 
few; but you will ascertain that 

Mental activity is promoted by interest; that 
Association is necessary to easy memorizing ; that 
The power of correct reasoning is reached only by slow 
and careful steps ; and that 

It is not easy at first to keep the mind thinking on one 
subject for any great length of time. 

One mind is a type of other minds. The way one 
thinks, others think. Our difficulties are others* diffi- 



BOW TO STUDY MIND. 



culties. On this account it is necessary for teachers to 
understand themselves. 

A Few Questions. — Is mind immaterial? Why do we 
so conclude? What arguments are there in favor of its 
materiality? What is sleep? What are dreams? What 
is forgetfulness? What is the cause of the " decay" of 
our mental powers? What are the first indications of 
mind? How is it known that a young child has mind? 
What does growth prove concerning the nature of mind 
at first? What are the steps in the "growth" of mind? 
What are the senses? Is the mind dependent upon 
them? What is meant by having "no sense"? What 
is consciousness? 

A Few Facts. — 1. That the mind is immaterial is as- 
sumed from the fact that it seems to act independently 
of the body. 

2. From the fact that the mind has no power of con- 
veying knowledge and growing, except through the 
medium of the senses, it has been assumed that the 
mind is material. 

3. Sleep is a bodily action. 

4. Dreams indicate that the mind is active during the 
sleep of the body, because what is thought is partly re- 
membered during waking hours. . 

5. Forgetfulness is the inability of the mind to recall 
impressions. 

6. The first indication of mind is shown in expressing 
a sense of pain. This shows that there is at the com- 
mencement of our being some mental activity. 

7. The mind at first is in a very undeveloped condi- 
tion. 



4 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

w . , 

8. The senses are the avenues by which the mind re- 
ceives and gives impressions. Without them it would 
have no opportunity of receiving or giving. 

9. By consciousness is meant that power which we 
have of knowing and studying our mental processes. 

10. The mind grows by means of the senses. 

11. It has different faculties. 

12. These parts or faculties do not all grow with equal 
rapidity. 

13. Its principal means of growth are through its 
effort to impart knowledge. 

14. A young mind has certain instincts in common 
with the lower animals. 

15. Mind wherever found is the same. Instinct 
cannot be studied by the same laws as mind. 

AN OUTLINE. 

The Mind. 

I. Its Sensibility. (Power of Feeling.) 

II. Its Thinking. (Power of Knowing.) 

III. Its Willing. (Power of Determining.) 

The Sensibilities. 

1. Of the Body : — Sensations, Appetites, Instincts. 

2. Of the Mind : — Emotions, Affections, Desires. 

Thinking— The Intellect. 

1. Presentative, Perception. 

2. Representative, I 1 ' Of the Actual, Memory. 

( 2. Of the Ideal, Imagination. 

Z. Reflective, \ *■ s y nthetic ; Generalization. 

{ 2. Analytic, . . Reasoning. 

4. Intuitive, ...... Original Conception. 



SOME FACTS IN MIND-GROWTH. 



SOME FACTS IN MIND-GROWTH. 

• 

If it is important for the farmer to understand the 
nature of soils and vegetable growth, it is much more 
necessary for the teacher to know how the mind grows, 
for a school is only a child-garden. In the soil of in- 
fantile nature some seeds can early be planted, and at 
each successive step in development a certain method of 
training and stimulating must be used. There are right 
and wrong ways; it is the duty of the teacher to know 
the right. There is now so much of science in education 
that some correct principles are fixed as fundamental 
and universally accepted. A few of these we will point 
out. 

1. Healthy growth depends upon proper exercise, on 
appropriate subjects, at right times. 

If these three elements should be observed there would 
be an ideally perfect education. 

2. Only the voluntary faculties are influenced ty 
motives. Attention, for example, is a voluntary faculty; 
motives alone can influence it. 

3. All natural growth comes from healthful exercise 
and is attended zvith pleasure. 

The gratification of curiosity, the desire of knowledge, 



6 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

the love of the beautiful and wonderful, are always pro- 
ductive of pleasurable emotions. Pain is always an 
indication of disorder and wrong somewhere. Dislike 
and aversion to certain actions show a want of harmony. 
When the gardener is compelled to prune and transplant, 
it is the result of a want of fitness of the young tree to 
itself or its surroundings. It is the same with the child. 

4. Habits, are formed by the repetition of the same acts. 
By and by it becomes easy to do what at firsl was ex- 
tremely difficult. When habits are formed and fixed 
they cannot be changed except by the most long- con- 
tinued and persistent exercise — the crook in the body 
of the old tree is almost as difficult to straighten. This 
shows us the great importance of right exercise at first, 
for the mental and moral constitution of the growing 
nature becomes permanently fixed at an early day. 

5. The whole mind exists, although in a rudimentary 
state, in the young child; therefore every part of the 
mind must be touched from the very first. ]STo faculty 
can be left untrained to some future time. This does 
not mean that all the faculties can be fully developed 
from the first, but that the means of their training must 
be used from the commencement of mind-activity. 

6. Perception is the first stage of intelligence. This 
depends upon outward objects; without them there could 
be no growth. 

Intuitions. — But there are intuitions not dependent 
upon perception. We know that the me is different from 
the not-me. When the child sees a beautiful object, it is 
pleased because it has an intuitive faculty of being 
pleased by it. There is an answer within to that with- 



SOME FACTS IN MIND-GROWTH. 



out. It is the native, inborn faculty of the beautiful 
which may be compared to a string of a harp tuned to a 
certain tone; when a corresponding tone is sounded, the 
answering vibration is immediately perceived; but har- 
mony must exist or there could be no sympathy in the 
string tuned. This harp-string illustrates the intuitive 
sense of the beautiful; the outward tone is the beauty 
taken in by the senses. 

These intuitions are universal, for they are found in 
the savage as well as the civilized. They are the recog- 
nition of the sense of the beautiful or the perception of 
harmony. Many of our judgments are the elements of 
what we call common-sense. They belong to the nature 
of things like the axioms of mathematics, as, * ' Things 
equal to the same thing are equal to each other. " 

Some philosophers, like Herbert Spencer, are disposed 
to deny their existence, but the universal verdict of 
mankind attest their presence, and the almost unanimous 
testimony of writers on mental science provides them a 
place in educational science. 

THE STAGES OP GEOWTH. 

Tate, in his " Philosophy of Education," gives four 
distinct stages of mental activity: 

1. I perceive a thing. 

2. I have a conception of a thing. 

3. I understand a thing. 

4. I can prove a thing. 

The first cultivates the perceptive faculties; the second, 
the representative faculties; the third, the knotting 
faculties; the fourth, the reasoning faculties. 



8 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

Along with these intellectual stages there are four 
steps in the development of the emotions and the will. 

In the First — the maximum of sensibility and the 
minimum of the will. 

In the Second — a diminution of sensibility with an 
increase of the will. 

In the Tfiird — a further diminution of the sensibili- 
ties and an increase of the force of the will. 

In the Fourth — a minimum of sensibility and a 
maximum of the will. See Tate's Philosophy of Edu- 
cation. 



" There is a well-marked order in the growth of the intellect. (1) The pro- 
cess of attaining knowledge sets out with sensation, or the reception of ex- 
ternal impressions by the mind. Sense supplies the materials which the in- 
tellect assimilates and elaborates according to its own laws. Before we can 
know anything about material objects which surround us they must impress 
our mind through the senses (sight, touch, hearing, etc.). (2) Sensation is 
followed by perception, in which a number of impressions are grouped 
together under the form of a precept. (3) After perception comes represen- 
tative imagination. It may represent this either in the original form (re- 
productive imagination), as when we recall the face of a friend; or in a new 
form (constructive imagination), as when we imagine some historical person- 
age. (4) Finally we have general or abstract knowing, otherwise marked off 
as thinking. This includes conception, or the formation of concepts; judg- 
ment, or the combination of concepts; and reasoning, or the combination of 
judgments, as when we conclude that a journalist is not omniscient, because 
no men are so."— Sully's Hand-Book op Psychology. 

" The characteristics of mental development are best seen in the case of 
the intellect. The growth of knowledge maybe viewed in different ways: 
(1) Under one aspect it is a gradual progress from vague to distinct knowl- 
edge. The perceptions and ideas grow more definite. This may be called 
intellectual differentiation. (2) Again, it is a progress from simple to com- 
plex processes. There is a continual grouping or integration of elements 
into organic compounds. In this way the child's knowledge of whole locali- 
ties, of series of events, and so forth, arises. (3) Once more, it is a continual 
movement from external sense to internal thought or reflection. Or, as it is 
commonly described, it is a transition from the presentative, or what is 
directly presented to the mind, to the representative, or that which is indi- 
rectly set before the mind by the aid of internal ideas. (4) Lastly, this 
progress from sense to thought is a transition from the knowledge of indi- 
vidual to that of general classics, or from a knowledge of concrete things to 
that of their abstract qualities."— Ibid. 



DEVELOPMENT. 



<£fjaptnr JBBL 

DEVELOPMENT. 

THE FIRST STAGE. 

In the first period of child-growth the active faculty 
is perception. There is little thought or reflection. 
Actions are impulsive. 

Perception soon leads to observation. 

This is a compound faculty, including discrimination, 
comparison, combination, and abstraction. 

When a child first perceives an object it is indistinct, 
mixed, and confounded with other objects. A clear idea 
of it is obtained when it is separated or discriminated 
from its surroundings. 

The first work of the teacher is to aid the pupil in 
getting clear ideas of tilings; in other words, to cultivate 
his discrimination. 

Comparison must begin from the first. The most im- 
portant lessons the child receives is in this direction. 
They teach him the distinction between: 



long, 


short, 


high, 


low, 


heavy, 


light, 


near, 


distant, 



IO MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 



sweet, sour, 

noise, harmony, 

comfort, discomfort, etc. 

He soon learns what to expect; in other words, the 
faculty of primitive judgment is called into exercise. At 
first he reaches out to take the moon, or a distant tree, 
and cries because he cannot get it; but soon he learns to 
judge between what is possible and what is impossible. 
The first fear a child has is of falling. This comes so 
early in life that it has been considered an intuitive sense, 
which can hardly be concluded. 

The First Lessons. — The very first lessons must lead 
the child to come to some definite conclusion from his 
own observation. Simple exercises like the following 
reach this end: 

Drawing lines of equal length. 

Assorting colored blocks or pieces of paper and ar- 
ranging them in piles. 

Judging of space, as by placing five blocks equal dis- 
tances apart. 

The Kindergarten system is full of work admirably 
adapted to develop primitive judgment, and no ele- 
mentary teacher should be ignorant of the methods 
invented and applied by Froebel and his disciples. 

When the child reaches the stage in his mental growth 
that he becomes so absorbed in what he is about as to be 
oblivious to surrounding influences, it is certain he has 
cultivated perception, discrimination, comparison, and 
combination. These steps have been taken and he has 
reached the stage where he has the power of primitive. 



DE VELOPMENT. 1 1 



abstraction, A very important gain has certainly been 
made. 

It must be noticed that no effort must be made to 
cultivate the memory. This statement may seem to 
imply that the memory must not be cultivated. It must 
he, but in this first stage not directly. The child will 
remember and reproduce many things he has learned, 
but not because he has been made to repeat them as 



THE [REPETITION OF THE SAME SENSATIONS GIVES 

power of recalling them. The meaningless repeti- 
tion of what is not understood is not an effort of the 
memory. 

The parrot does not talk because of its memory, 
neither can we conclude that a child has a good memory 
who can repeat a paragraph of Latin or Greek, or a part 
of Thanatopsis, or the multiplication-table. Memory is 
the retention and reproduction of what has been dis- 
criminated from other objects and compared and com- 
bined with them ; in other words, memory is the reten- 
tion and reproduction of what is known. 

All of this relates to the first stage in mental develop- 
ment. 

A new class of faculties will soon come into play. 
True memory and conception will be awakened into 
activity. The child will pass into the sphere of repre- 
sentation. 

There are four distinct stages of development 
in the life of a human being. 

During the first stage the perceptive faculties pre- 
dominate. They are the following: Sensation, Percep- 



12 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

tion, Attention, Observation, Retention, Primitive Judg- 
ment or intuitive perception. 

During the second stage the conceptive faculties pre- 
dominate. These are also called the representative 
faculties. They are the following: Memory, Imitation, 
Conception, Imagination, Association, Recollection, 
Eepresentation as exhibited in language, Primitive 
Judgment associated with Conception. 

During the third stage the knowing faculties pre- 
dominate. These are the following: Abstraction, Clas- 
sification, Generalization, Explicit Comparison, Compo- 
sition and Analysis, Judgment. 

During the fourth stage the reasoning faculties are in 
their perfection. These are: Reason exercised in Demon- 
stration, Induction, Explicit Observation, Reflection, and 
Speculative Thinking. 

The time of school education, as to age, may be 
divided into five periods: 

1. Infancy, extending to three years. 

2. Early childhood, extending from three to about 
seven years. 

3. Childhood, extending to about ten years. 

4. Early youth, to about fourteen years. 

5. Youth, to manhood. 

During these five periods, most of what is accom- 
plished by the schools must be done. After these eras 
have passed, the learner goes into the large school of the 
world, and carries the forces of home and school into the 
varied experiences of actual life, See Tate. 



DEVELOPMENT. 13 



THE SECOND STAGE. 

During the second stage of school life the 
memory needs special attention. 

It has often been said that memory is the art of atten- 
tion. Tate goes so far as to say that " if we take care to 
engage the attention, we may safely leave the memory to 
take care of itself." 

Memory is to a great degree independent of the will, 
since we cannot directly will to remember. Only by the 
power of association can a desired subject be recalled. 

It is worse than useless to say to a child, " You know;" 
" Think hard;" " You must remember." If the child's 
life depended on recalling certain facts, a scolding or a 
whipping would only hasten its end. The memory, 
more than any other faculty, is destroyed by nervous 
excitement. Cool, collected children have the most 
reliable memories. Calm measures and quiet influences 
strengthen this power; opposite forces weaken it. 

This faculty is more dependent on the condition of 
the stomach than any other. 

Some may be disposed to smile at this statement, but 
nevertheless it is true that almost without exception 
persons with disordered stomachs have poor memories, 
especially of dates and names. It follows that no studies 
should be pursued early in the school-day that require an 
effort of the technical memory. 

Two Kinds of Memory. — There are two kinds of mem- 
ory: first, of facts and dates in their exact order; second, 
that which is based on judgment and proper classifica- 



14 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

tion. The first is called a local memory, and indicates 
no great power of mind. It may be found in almost 
idiots. Blind Tom, the musical prodigy, has this sort of 
memory, almost to perfection. Young children often 
have great power of remembering unmeaning words and 
figures. This is generally considered an indication of 
mental power, but it may indicate its absence. 

The second kind of memory is that which serves the 
uses of thinking and deciding. 

The greatest error of modern education, during the 
second stage of child-life, consists in considering that 
most of the time must be spent in storing the mind with 
useful knowledge. It seems to be thought that if the 
verbal memory be made strong the rest of the mind will 
take care of itself. 

Tate says, " This is a gross eseoe isr education. 
A mere verbal memory is not of the greatest importance; 
in reality, it is of very little account in the development 
of the other powers of the mind. Newton and Shake- 
speare were remarkable neither for extraordinary learn- 
ing nor for unusual powers of memory. Many who are 
prodigies in this respect are never otherwise distinguished 
for intellectual strength; their minds become so loaded 
with the ideas of others as to render them incapable of 
exercising any independent thought." 

The old text-book question-and-answer method of the 
middle ages has come down to us, and is cherished in 
many schools, while alchemy and astrology, its twin 
sisters, have been, long ago, relegated to oblivion. A 
good verbal memory may be turned to good account, but 
judgment based on comparison, the power of drawing 



DEVELOPMENT. Ijj 

conclusions, and the faculty of quick and accurate sight 
and expression are infinitely more valuable. Tate says 
with great truth, "that boy whose memory is cultivated 
at the expense of his judgment cannot become a really 
useful member of society." This is a fact which cannot 
too often be repeated and too generally believed. 



"The more important varieties of contiguous association may be brought 
under the following heads: (1) First of all, we have impressions, actions, or 
events, which occur together or in immediate succession, as the sight of a 
bell swinging and its sound, the shining of the sun and the feeling of warmth, 
one bit of a tune and the following bit. Among the successions of actions 
and events the most important are those of cause and effect. The child 
comes to know that the sun warms, that rain wets, that hard bodies hurt, 
that his own actions produce certain results, e.g., the removal of obstacles 
by noting how one thing follows another, i.e., by connecting things accord- 
ing to the law of contiguity. (2) Next may be mentioned associations with 
objects, including persons. Thus the child connects the various properties 
and powers it discovers in things, such as the divisibility and the combusti- 
bility of wood with this substance; the voice, gestures, etc., of persons with 
these; also the uses to which things may be put, and the gratifications to be 
obtained from them with the objects themselves, such as the ball's capabil- 
ity of being rolled, the capability of the toy-bricks to support others, and so 
forth. (3) Our next group consists of local associations, which play a con- 
spicuous part in memory. These include (a) connections of objects with 
places, as the cowslips with the fields, books, toys, etc., with the places 
where they are put away and kept; (b) events and places, as the meal, the 
lesson, the punishment, and so on, with the room in which they take place; 
and (c) places with other and contiguous places, and features of the environ- 
ment with others which are contiguous in place, as the sea and the sandy 
shore, the river and the bridge across it, one house or street and the adjacent 
one."— Sully's Hand-Book of Psychology. 



1 6 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 



adapter XV. 
MIND-INCENTIVES. 

" Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, 
Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain. 
Awake but one, and lo! what myriads risel 
Each' stamps its image as the other flies." 

Theing says, " It is useless pumping on a kettle with 
its lid on. Pump, pump, pump. The pump-handle 
goes vigorously, the water pours a virtuous glow of 
righteous satisfaction and sweetly beams on the counte- 
nance of the pumper, but — the kettle remains empty." 
When a man is in a sound sleep we must get at him in 
order to wake him up. After a thorough shaking he 
yawns and rubs his eyes, and looks around in a dazed 
stare, and wants to know what all this fuss is about. 
" Why can't you let me alone ?" No, we cannot let him 
alone. He has work to do that must be done, and he 
must be wide awake while he is about it. He himself 
really wants to wake up, but sleep is too much for him ; 
he must -have outside help. So it is with the child. 
We want his help in the work of the world, and we must 
wake him up. It must be accomplished by incentives. 
What are they ? 

The pump and kettle illustration of Thring is not 
altogether an apt one, for the mind is not a kettle to be 



MIND-INCENTIVES. \J 

filled by outside pumping in ; it may better be supposed 
to be in a dormant state, and must be waked up — or in 
a germ state, and must be nurtured into maturity and 
symmetry. The mind of another cannot be incited to 
activity without a corresponding activity on the part of 
the teacher. An able, earnest teacher will always find 
able and earnest scholars. 

Curiosity is an incentive. We are all extremely curi- 
ous to know things hidden from us, for men are but 
children of a larger growth. A boy will sit on the bank 
of a river all day and fish, content with only an occa- 
sional nibble. He is curious to know what sort of a 
fish he is going to catch. Guessing is a favorite sport 
with children on account of this element of curiosity in 
it. If a teacher bring a closed box into the school- 
room and say, "I have something very wonderful in 
that box. Guess what it is," he will find every eye 
wide open, and every pupil showing evidence of the 
deepest attention and interest. 

Skilfully used, this is a powerful mind-incentive ; but 
it is easy to drop down into the most commonplace 
questions and answers, as, " What is this I hold in my 
hand ?" "Jane, you may take it and tell me whether 
it is hard or soft," etc., etc. Certain kinds of object-les- 
sons, as given in many schools, are of this insipid stamp. 
A genuine curiosity will often create enough disorder 
to send a strict disciplinarian of the old school to the 
insane asylum. It is easy to put children upon an intel- 
lectual race-course through curiosity. Let them run ; 
as long as they can be brought to a stand when neces- 
sary, no harm will be done. A prudish exactor of order 



1 8 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

and propriety will squeeze all the juice of life out of a 
school for fear of noise and indecorum. 

The principal mind-incentives are love, praise, pay, 
fear, duty, and intellectual excitement. Perhaps the 
order in which they are given here is, as nearly as can 
be determined, the true statement of their value in 
inciting the mind to action. It would be profitable to 
stop and discuss each of these forces, but space will not 
permit it. 

The Mind Reached only Through the Senses. — It must 
be remembered that the mind can only be reached 
through the senses. These are the only avenues to 
it. Therefore, the more acute the senses become, the 
more impressions they will convey to the brain, and 
consequently the more knowledge it receives. Every- 
thing the mind actually takes in it keeps, and some 
time it gives out again. Some impressions upon the 
senses do not reach the mind ; but when they do, they 
are not lost. Consequently the work of the teacher must 
be, so to train the senses that they will readily convey im- 
pressions to the mind, and so to train the mind that it will 
keep what is given to it. This can only be done through 
voluntary activity. There must be freedom. • When- 
ever a restraining or forcing process is undertaken the 
mind will not be free to act, and as a result it will not 
grow. Scolding or commanding destroys the free activ- 
ity of the learner. He must willingly yield himself to 
the work before him. In other words, the teacher 
must get willing interest. This can be done at first by 
objects, and then by imagining, reasoning, classifying, 
or reproducing facts. If a teacher says, "You must 



MIND-INCENTIVES. IQ 

give attention! If you do not I shall keep you after 
school/' he might as well talk to trees or stones ; yes, 
better : for trees and stones are passive, but under these 
words the mind becomes antagonistic and repellent. 
Equally impossible would it be to excite interest by 
urging duty. " You ought to be interested. It costs so 
much to send you to school ; why are you not inter- 
ested ?" It not only accomplishes nothing, but represses 
and often destroys interest. 

The motto at the head of this article indicates a most 
valuable mode of procedure in inciting the mind to 
action. One thing always leads to another. Following 
up link after link, keeping the continuity of thought, 
and not permitting it to wander off into side issues, is 
essential. This holding the interest concentrated on 
one thing and its logical associates is an essential ele- 
ment in successful teaching. "Don't scatter; take 
aim/' is as valuable an order in the school-room as in a 
charge in battle. To drive ahead towards the main 
issue is absolutely necessary if we ever expect to get 
there. 

The Joy of Discovery is a most powerful mind-incen- 
tive. A child may cry "Eureka \" with as much real 
exultation and excitement as Archimedes, Columbus, 
or Balboa. When the little Columbus says, ( ' I won't 
give it up/' he is getting ready to jump up in joy and 
cry out, " I've got it ! I've got it !" 

There is no incentive in a dull, prosy following in 
the steps of another. The drowsy policeman who me- 
chanically plods on in his accustomed beat has no incen- 
tive to quicken his tardy steps ; but let him get on the 



20 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

track of a thief, and see how he wakes up." Through 
this alley, around that corner, into this cellar, and lo ! 
he has him ! Lurking in an old box, covered up with a 
pile of rags, he pulls him to light. He has discovered 
him ! The world is full of illustrations of this element 
of joy. Flowers, rocks, sand, water, wood, paper, and 
a thousand other things afford the objects from which 
discoveries can be made. The old method, with its 
command, " Study your books" is as far removed from 
the new method, with its invitation, Si Let us see what 
we can discover," as midnight is from mid-day. 



Jacob Abbott, whose books show such a perfect knowledge of the nature 
of children, somewhere gives these four rules for parents: 

1. When you refuse, refuse finally. 

2. When you consent, consent cheerfully. 

3. Often command. 

4. Never scold. 

Children, in fact, can be led anywhere, and made to do anything, by those 
whom they love. They are said to be ungrateful; and so they are for all 
that is done for them from duty; all the usual, regular care taken of them 
they accept as a matter of course. But only do something unexpected for 
their happiness and you win their hearts. Tell them a story, take them to 
see a sight, do anything for them which shows that you take an interest in 
them and in their pleasure, and you acquire an unbounded influence over 
them. I do not mean you are not to be firm and decided. " When you re- 
fuse, refuse finally." Do not say, " Well, my dear, I think on, the whole, you 
had better not go out. I'll think of it, and perhaps I'll let you go by and by. 
I am afraid you will take cold. I had rather not have you go; but, if you in- 
sist on it, I suppose you must." Do not say that, but either say " No," and 
end there, or else say, " Yes, if you wrap yourself up, it will be all right, and 
I hope you will have a pleasant time." 

These are the two extra pennies which constitute a part of the joy and 
good of life. 

Some people fail from attempting so much, and never accomplishing any- 
thing. Finishing a thing, doing it thoroughly before we begin anything else, 
is very important to our own happiness and the good of others. " The end 
crowns the work," said the practical Romans. Better to finish one small en- 
terprise than to leave many large ones half done. Nature finishes every- 
thing, and that makes a large part of her charm. Every little flower is 
perfect and complete, from root to seed. Every leaf which will open in the 
next spring-time will have its little ribs and edges as exactly and completely 
finished as if it were the only leaf God intended to make in the whole year. 
—Self-Culture: James Freeman Clarke. 



A FEW FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES SETTLED. 21 



A FEW FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES SETTLED. 

1. The earliest evidences of animal existence are the 

SENSES. 

No animal can exist without one or more of them. 
It is this that distinguishes animals from plants. 

2. The impressions received by the senses are carried 
to the beain. 

Unless the mind received impressions through the 
bkain, it would have nothing to feed upon. It would 
not grow. This fact has many times been proved. 

3. Impressions received by the mind, retained, and 
recalled, are ideas. 

We can have no idea of anything we have not seen, 
or heard, or felt, or tasted, or smelled ; or which is not 
like something we have heard, felt, tasted, seen, or 
smelled. 

We have no idea how an angel looks. Why? 

4. Proper arrangements of ideas are thoughts. 

If it should be said that the arrangement of land and 
water, and the character of the animals, in Uranus, is 
totally unlike anything on earth, we could have no idea 
of things there, consequently we could have no thought. 
An idea (or a notion) precedes thought, A thought is 
made up of ideas. 



22 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

5. I read a book. I meet a friend. I am interested, 
excited; I laugh, cry, or am indignant. This is not 
pure thought ; it is feeling. This power I have : / 
can feel. 

6. I now resolve to go away. I do go away, and do 
what the feeling led me to determine I ought to do. 
This power I have — the faculty of volition. Here, 
then, is Thought— Feeling— Volition. 

Every possible mental operation may be reduced to one 
of these three things : 

The Intellect — the faculty or organ of thought. 

The Sensibility — the faculty of feeling. 

The Will — the faculty of voluntary action — the fac- 
ulty of volition. 

7. When I place several thoughts together, they lead 
me to conclude or judge that certain results take 
place. This is judgment. 

It is synthetic. 

8. I have several thoughts which I analyze into sepa- 
rate thoughts or ideas. This is the basis of reason- 
ing. 

It is analytic. 

" We only reason in so far as we note the resemblances among 
objects and events. The power of reasoning implies the ability to 
detect similarity." — Sill. 

Judgment combines thoughts, and affirms one thing 
to be true of another. 

Reasoning divides and declares one truth to be con- 
tained in another. All reasoning involves judgment; 
but all judgment is not reasoning. 

In these suggestions is food for thought. 



A FEW FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES SETTLED. 2$ 

How important these statements are ! If they are 
wrong, then much that passes for good teaching is 
wrong. If they are right, all teachers should understand 
and obey their deductions. 



I. The mind evidently possesses power. 

Matter itself possesses power. It is acknowledged to have properties, and 
what are properties but powers? It has, for example, a gravitating, a chem- 
ical, an electric power. Physical science is seeking to determine the precise 
law, rule, and expression of the powers of body. If matter has power, much 
more has mind. 

II. That there are powers in the mind is evident from the differences in 
the mental states and affections of different persons. 

This conclusion might be drawn from the very differences between man 
and brute. The lower animals possess powers common to them and human 
beings; but there are others, such as the discernment of moral obligation, 
which are peculiar to man. 

HI. This is further evident from the circumstances that are not always 
exercising every facidty or the same faculties. 

In every given state of mind there seems to be more than one power in 
exercise. But all the mental powers are not in action, or at least in intense 
action, every instant. At this moment I may be looking at the paper before 
me, and at the same time collecting my thoughts to write this paragraph. 
Immediately after I may be looking at the same paper, but my mind may 
have wandered off to some imaginary scene in which I and my friends are 
figuring. 

IV. The faculties are powers of one indivisible mind. 

They do not differ from each other, as the hand does from the foot, or the 
lungs from the heart. They are powers of one existence possessing a variety 
of attributes. 

V. The faculties are not to be regarded as necessarily operating one 
after another in regular order or at different times. 

It seems clear that several of the mental powers may be blended in one 
act. Thus at the same time that I am judging or deciding, I may be under 
the influence of hope or fear, of benevolence or prejudice. How many di- 
verse powers may be exercised at one and the same time in that blade of 
grass, or in our finger; the gravitating, chemical, electric, vital; no one can 
tell how many. 

VI. It is difficxdt to form a classification of the faculties which deserves 
to be regarded as complete. 

This arises from a variety of causes. It may proceed from human inca- 
pacity, from the difficulty of penetrating phenomena which are so fugitive— 
that is, so briefly under the view— and so complicated, and from the circum- 
stance that the faculties very much run into each other. 

Vn. There may be a classification of the faculties embodying much truth 
and of eminent practical utility, though not professing to be perfect. 

It is true that the mind is one, but it manifests itself in a variety of ways, 
and its characteristic operations must be carefully noted and their peculiar- 
ities unfolded. It is only when the acts are marked, distinguished, classified, 
and named that one can be said to have any adequate idea of the nature of 
the mind.— McCosh's Tm; Cognitive Powers, 



24 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 



TEMPERAMENTS. 

Sikce the mind receives all of its knowledge through 
the body, it follows that the character of the body must 
influence the nature of the impressions. All do not re- 
ceive the same impressions from the same objects, be- 
cause they do not pass through the same mediae 

It is difficult to define temperaments ; in fact, it is 
not necessary to define them. From ancient times, with 
great unanimity, they have been classified as four — 

Nervous, Sanguine, Bilious, Lymphatic Temperaments. 
— It is self-evident that teachers should understand tem- 
peraments, for each demands a different treatment. 
The nervous child would be utterly overwhelmed by a 
punishment that would hardly move a lymphatic one. 
Teachers should study their own temperaments, that 
they may know what to cultivate and what to repress, 
for one's temperament may be much modified by habits 
and culture ; in fact, by diligent practice it may be 
greatly changed. No temperament is perfect ; neither 
has any person one entirely pure. There are all grades 
and qualities. 

A diligent study of what we give below, with the help 
of an honest friend who is courageous enough to tell the 



TEMPERAMENTS, 2$ 

truth, however unpleasant it may be, will reveal more 
than a hundred "phrenologists," whose self -assumed 
assumptions are only equalled by the profundity of their 
ignorance. When pure, the various temperaments 
may be known by the following characteristics : 

I. NERVOUS- Vital: Brain. 

Physical. — Head large ; abdomen small ; nerves ac- 
tive ; hair fine, silky, often white in childhood, often 
black in maturer years; skin thin, transparent; eyes 
bright, vivid, expressive ; figure delicate, slender, often 
lean ; motions quick. 

Mental. — Mind moves actively ; great love of poetry 
and music; often reticent, thinking much but saying 
little ; often great love of nature ; has ability to read 
thoughts from expressions of the face and motions ; 
afraid of the dark ; imagination very active ; often slow 
to bestow confidence, but possessed of deep feeling ; 
usually honest and open-hearted ; when the digestive 
organs are not vigorous there is apt to be great mental 
disturbance and melancholy, producing a desire for quiet 
and solitude, with serious and religious feelings ; when 
united with a little of the sanguine temperament it pro- 
duces a meditative condition, delighting in a world of 
ideal creatures ; often found lamenting over a lack of 
goodness or greatness, and longing for scenes or places 
of ideal perfection. When this temperament is not pure 
there is apt to be great irritability and lack of tongue- 
restraint. 



26 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

II. SANGUINE— Circulatory: Lung. 

Physical. — Lungs and arterial system large; pulse 
strong; muscles round and well filled; organism genial, 
warm; hair usually red or auburn; eyes blue; skin fair, 
reddish tinge; cheeks flush quickly; emotions of the 
mind quickly seen in the face; chest full; limbs round- 
ed; countenance animated. 

Mental. — Ardent and lively feelings; sudden emo- 
tions; transient affections; quick passions; impetuous 
desires; strong propensity to mirth; easily accustoms 
itself to a life of gayety; excessive grief, with floods of 
tears, which soon pass away; constant tendency to excess 
and exaggeration; intense expression and passion; reso- 
lutions suddenly taken, immediately executed; liable to 
be greatly in love with music, dancing, painting, elo- 
quence; rushes on " where angels fear to tread"; widely 
prevalent in the French nation; often found among the 
Irish and Scotch. 

III. BILIOUS— Liver. 

Physical. — Cold or low temperature; hair black, 
strong, and abundant; complexion sallow; skin dry; 
eyes dark. 

Mental. — When this temperament is joined with a 
strong muscular system there is found a modification 
of the pure bilious characteristic, and there will be found 
a choleric temperament. " Its tendency is to prompt 
and sustained activity, to enlarged plans, patient endur- 
ance in execution, to difficult enterprise, and courage 
and resolution in meeting obstacles. Its aims are high, 
and its ends comprehensive, demanding plan and calcu- 



TEMPERAMENTS. 2? 

lation for their success, and time for their accomplish- 
ment. With a bad heart the enterprise may be malig- 
nant, and its prosecution shockingly cruel, bloody, and 
ferocious; or, with a good heart, benevolent, and urged 
on with a generous and noble enthusiasm; but in each 
case there will be determination, self-reliance, and invin- 
cible decision and persistence. Magnanimity, self-sacri- 
ficing chivalry, and exalted heroism will compel admi- 
ration for the actor, even in a bad cause, and secure 
lasting respect and veneration for the dauntless cham- 
pion of truth and righteousness: and in each of these 
fields, so different in moral estimation, the choleric tem- 
perament may be found, but direct, determined, and 
persevering in both." — Hickok. 

IV. LYMPHATIC-tffomacft : Food, 

Physical. — Abdomen large; system clogged; expres- 
sion languid; hair light; eyes tranquil, expressionless; 
countenance listless; features rounded; lips thick; flesh 
soft; body full, thick, disinclined to muscular exertion 
or mental action. This is called sometimes the phleg- 
matic temperament. 

Mental. — "Mind heavy, torpid, and the man slug- 
gish and often approaching the stupid. When only 
moderately phlegmatic, this temperament is especially 
favorable for well-directed, long-sustained, and effective 
mental activity. " The moderately phlegmatic is self- 
balanced and stable, practical, judicious, and often 
cheerful. This temperament often exhibits remarkable 
instances of equanimity, patience, and calm self-reli- 
ance. 



28 -MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

The Dutch are phlegmatic; the German phlegmatic 
tempered with the bilious and nervous. In the English 
mind the phlegmatic is practically in the majority; but 
in neither the Dutch, German, nor English do we find a 
pure phlegmatic temperament. The Dutchman plods, 
the German speculates, the Englishman executes. The 
Yankee temperament is more nervous, mixed with some 
sanguine. 

" The mixed phlegmatic has given to the world the 
patriarch Joseph, the prophet Daniel, the philosopher 
Newton, and the patriot Washington." 



TEMPERAMENTS IN EDUCATION.* 

Individual Differences. — It cannot be denied that in- 
dividual differences come from permanent bodily and 
mental 'peculiarities. Different amounts of exciting force 
are needed in order to call forth a given quantity of feel- 
ing in two cases. In the school-room, teachers are daily 
comparing pupils with respect to the intensity and dura- 
tion of a feeling under precisely the same circumstances. 
What moves one to great exertion is hardly perceived by 
another. There are certain susceptibilities antecedent 
to activity. One child has a strong will-power, but no 
sympathy; another has great feeling, but weak will- 

* It is wrong to confound the study of temperament with the study of 
phrenology. The one takes cognizance of the entire body, the other con- 
fines its inquiries to cranial and facial development. 



TEMPERAMENTS. 2$ 

force. In general, intensity of feeling is closely con- 
nected with strength of will, bnt not always. We are 
compelled to make each child the subject of special 
study. Just as the portrait-painter gives to each person 
before him individual attention, so must the teacher. 
The true teacher is an artist in a grander, higher, bet- 
ter sense than any painter, however perfect, can possi- 
bly be. He cannot classify all on the basis of their at- 
tainments in a certain branch of study. Better consid- 
erations, drawn from the nature of mental and bodily 
activities, govern class arrangement and grading. In 
doing this he must have the perfect freedom of an ar- 
tist. How absurd it would be for a board of directors 
to dictate to a sculptor where he shall cut his marble; 
equally absurd is it for any one not a true teacher to as- 
sume to direct the artist-teacher in the classification of 
his pupils. Freedom that comes from thorough knowl- 
edge must never be abridged. 

Hints to Teachers. — 1. Determine the temperaments 
of your pupils. The difficulties will be found in those 
of mixed character. No one can mistake a pure nerv- 
ous, sanguine, bilious, or lymphatic child ; but, the 
truth is, such unadulterated specimens are seldom 
found. It is the mixed species that will give trouble. 

2. Having determined to the best of your ability the 
predominating temperament, treat each child according 
to the following rules : 

a. Do not put two pupils of the same temperament 
together. 

h. Ask more questions of the lymphatic than the 
nervous. 



30 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

c. Do not point out publicly to the nervous child his 
mistakes. Suggest quietly. 

d. Speak quietly and slowly, in a natural tone of voice 
to the nervous girl; a little more emphasis can be used 
in addressing the lymphatic boy. 

Do not say to the nervous girl, { ' Sit down;" " Don't 
jump around so much;" (i Don't ask so many ques- 
tions." It will do no good. A quiet, kind remark, in 
a quiet tone of voice, or simply a motion of the hand, 
will be sufficient. 

e. Bear a great deal from the nervous without com- 
plaint. Scolding is mental arsenic to the sanguine- 
nervous pupil. A few emphatic remarks will often 
do the stolid boy good, but let them be made to him 
alone. 

/. A nervous-sanguine child will bear a great deal of 
firm government. Don't be afraid to say quietly, but 
firmly and kindly, "No." Tears will flow; angry, 
hasty words very likely be uttered, but don't mind; 
keep cool, collected, and firm; say little, and that little 
kindly, in a quieting tone of voice. The shower will 
pass, and with the tear-drop on the cheek the penitent 
regret will follow. 

g. If the bilious temperament is mixed with a little 
lymphatic and a little nervous, there will often be diffi- 
culty of a serious nature. Outbursts of passion will not 
pass pleasantly away, but there will be sulkiness, mo- 
roseness, backbiting, and a disposition to stir up mis- 
chief. This needs careful treatment. The best way to 
treat such cases as these is, (1) ask the doing of a favor; 
(2) show confidence by assigning some special work 



TEMPERAMENTS. 3 1 

where it is possible; (3) talk alone, and in a natural but 
decided tone of voice awaken the conscience; (4) be un- 
yielding in action, but use great care how you threaten 
or promise, or seem anxious to obtain personal favor; 
(5) if you have been wrong, say so in a manly manner, 
but not in a craven spirit; (6) keep the reins as in driv- 
ing horses, in your own hands; (7) ask a skilful horse- 
trainer how he deals with a balky horse, and apply his 
wisdom to the child. 

h. Because a lymphatic child is apparently stubborn, 
be careful you do not mistake his motive. A nervous 
teacher trying to move a phlegmatic boy to action by 
more nervousness is a ridiculous sight. The immobility 
of the one is only matched by the impatience of the 
other. 

i. The temperaments most injured by injudicious 
teachers are the bilious and nervous. The sanguine and 
lymphatic will stand uninjured a great amount of 
abuse. 

Many a bilious boy has been sent to the state's prison, 
if not to the gallows, by ignorant teachers. 

General Notes. — 1. Be certain you understand your 
child before you punish. 

2. Be also certain the child understands you before 
you blame him. 

3. General, complaining remarks before the whole 
school are always out of place. No two pupils hear 
them alike. 

4. The child of slow comprehension, sluggish move- 
ments, may in the long-run come out ahead. 

5. The least hopeful temperament is the pure bilious- 



32 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

lymphatic, when it has been subjected to wrong influ- 
ences at home or in the street. 

6. The most hopeful temperament is the nervous- 
lymphatic, when it has been properly trained at home 
or by associates. 

7. Only by slow degrees can permanent changes be 
effected in temperament. Be patient, but eternally per- 
sistent. > 



v 



THE TRAINING OF THE SENSES. 33 



Chapter UM. 

THE TRAINING OF THE SENSES. 

It may seem to some of our readers that we are deal- 
ing with very trivial subjects in this and other chapters, 
but a moment's reflection will convince them to the 
contrary. There can be no perception without sense- 
action. The avenues to the thought must be in good 
order ; distorted impressions come from disordered 
avenues. The training of the senses is important at 
each stage in life. No one is too old to neglect their 
exercise ; in fact, the old need the most constant and 
active drill in this direction. 

Directions. — Continuing the objective course, we will 
mention several additional exercises which may be used 
in all schools : 

1. Hold up two different things of complex character 
until all have had sufficient time to see them. Put 
them out of sight ; let them be described. 

2. In the same manner exhibit three, four, five, six, 
etc., objects. Care must be taken not to confuse the 
mind by exhibiting too many at once. 

Great skill is sometimes attained in the art of quickly 
seeing and retaining impressions. There was once a 
gentleman who could stand before the show-window of a 



34 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

retail store five minutes and then go away and accurately 
describe all the objects exhibited. 

Such power is rare. It is said that President Garfield 
possessed it to a remarkable degree* 

3. Hold up a picture containing many objects. After 
all have seen it, remove and describe. 

4. Place small pieces of camphor, alum, salt, and 
sugar on the table. Let them be discriminated by 
taste ; afterwards named by sight. 

5. In the same manner, use solutions of tea, coffee, 
sugar, and vinegar. 

6. Let pupils go into a common retail store and look 
around, and then go home and write the names of all 
they saw. 

7. Hearing sounds, as loud, low, high, bass, long, 
short, harsh, soft, and telling at once their qualities. 

8. Hearing the tones of the octave on an organ, A, B, 
0, D, E, F, G-, and telling the name of each as soon as 
heard. Do not sound them in order. 

9. Feeling substances that are greasy, smooth, rough, 
large, small, round, square, cube, pentagon, dodecahe- 
dron, oval, sphere, etc., with eyes shut, and telling at 
once their shape and character. 

10. Judging of distances; as height of a room, its 
length, breadth, the distance of a rod, a foot, a yard/ 
100 feet, etc., and in every instance verifying the judg- 
ment, and trying again. 

11. Judging of comparative distances. Draw a line 
on the board by measure ; go to another board and draw 
another line of the same length without measure, verify 
and try again. Take a stovepipe-hat, look at it carefully 



THE TRAINING OF THE SENSES. 35 

at a little distance; draw a line on the board the length 
of its height, the length across the top, longest way, 
the shortest way; verify, try again. 

In all possible ways discipline, train, correct, render 
sharp and accurate all the senses ; and this not for a day 
or year, but as long as school-life continues. The time 
devoted to these exercises must be proportioned to the 
advancement of the learners. 

Subjective and Objective Attention. — It ought to be 
said over and over again that subjective attention fol- 
lows objective. The things that are unknown become 
known by those that are known. Commencing with 
what a child sees, hears, smells, feels, and tastes, we 
conduct him by successive steps to what he can only 
conceive he can see, hear, smell, feel, and taste. He 
sees a cat; he comes to know how a tiger looks; the 
little cat becomes a gigantic panther; the mound of 
sand, an immense mountain; and a small pool of water, 
Lake Superior. After several years of mind-training 
the conceptive faculty is so far developed that he can 
think of this earth as a vast globe, and of human beings 
as insignificant mites on its surface. By and by, when 
full maturity is reached and a thousand objective im- 
pressions have become subjective, tie can see the ecliptic, 
the equator, the equinoctial, the precession of the equi- 
noxes, the nodes of the moon, and all the planets in 
their revolution around the sun. By and by he can 
rise higher, and conceive the true constitution of the 
universe itself. 

But he does not stop here. From the region of the 
subjective he goes into the domain of the abstract, and 



36 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

quantity occupies his mental sight. He sees the conic 
sections, and computes the value of infinitesimal terms. 
The higher mathematics open to his enlarged sight. 
But he takes one step more and then reaches the utmost 
limit of human seeing. .He grasps the subtleties of 
logic and reasoning, and judges, compares, and decides 
the value of arguments. He goes no farther. 
In all of this there are these four steps : 

1. From the objective to the subjective. 

2. From the subjective to the conceptive. 

3. From conceptive thought to the idea of quantity 
and its relations. 

4. From the idea of quantity and its relations to the 
higher ideas of comparisons, judgments, and conclu- 
sions. 

The foundation-stone of all is objective sight, hear- 
ing, smelling, tasting, and seeing. The judge begins 
here, and whenever he renders a decision he commences 
just where a little child begins, and sees and hears just 
as patiently and clearly as it is possible for a child to do. 

No man, however high, ever gets beyond objective 
perception. 

So much depends upon it during all life that its culti- 
vation should form the essential and prominent work of 
an elementary course in all our schools. 

A FEW SUGGESTIONS IN TRAINING THE SENSES. 

It has frequently been said that the mind can only 
receive ideas through the medium of the senses. It 
follows, then, that the senses must be trained in all 



THE TRAINING OF THE SENSES. $J 

the grades of a school course. No man or woman is too 
old to need the culture of the eye, hand, ear, as well as 
the nose and mouth. If the human machine is in good 
working order the mind will be likely to be stocked with 
thought. 

Principles. — One sense cannot be trained without also 
training to some extent all the others. 

Quickness of apprehension must be aimed at. 

Correctness of statement is essential. Language is 
the vehicle of thought. Fragmentary expression is cer- 
tain to lead to disconnected thought. Full statements 
in sentences are of inestimable value. First be certain 
that there is correctness, next quickness, then full state- 
ments. 

There are two kinds of sight, feeling, etc. : one is the 
objective, or what the mind perceives when it looks out 
upon the outside world ; the other is subjective, or what 
the mind perceives when it looks in upon itself and 
recalls, recollects, judges, or reasons. Primary grades 
are mainly concerned with objective culture ; higher 
grades give more time to subjective discipline. 



FIRST COURSE— Outlines of Lessons. 

Suppose a piece of glass is presented to the children. 
After proper questioning, but never telling, or ask- 
ing QUESTIONS THAT CAN BE ANSWERED BY YES OR NO, 

lead the children to look — look — look — and think and 
tell. The following full statement is obtained : 

Glass is bright, cold, smooth, transparent, and brittle. 



38 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

In subsequent lessons other objects are presented, and 
the following statements obtained : 

India-rubber is opaque, elastic, inflammable, black, 
tough, and smooth. 

Leatlieris flexible, odorous, water-proof, tough, smooth, 
durable and opaque, and is used for shoes, gloves, reins, 
saddles, porte-monnaies, and binding books. 

Loaf-sugar is soluble, fusible, brittle, hard, sweet, 
white, sparkling, granular, solid, and opaque. 

In the same manner use the following substances : 



Sponge, 


Wool, 


Water, 


A piece of wax, 


Camphor, 


Bread, 


Sealing-wax, 


Whalebone, 


Ginger, 


Blotting-paper, 


Milk, 


Eice, 


Salt, 


Horn, 


Crayon. 



'SECOND COUKSE — Comparisons. 

After having obtained all the obvious qualities of the 
foregoing objects, or others equally as good, then com- 
mence a series of comparisons, taking care in each step 
to bring into active exercise all the senses possible. 

Present the subject in outline thus : 



SlMILAKS. 



Milk. 

Liquid, 
Wholesome, 
Heavy, 
Eeflective, 
Used to drink. 



Wateb. 

Liquid, 
Wholesome, 
Heavy, 
Eeflective, 
Used to drink. 



THE TRAINING OF THE SENSES. 



39 



Milk. 


Water. 




' Opaque, 


Transparent, 




White, 


Colorless, 


Dissimilars. < 


Sweet, 


Tasteless, 




Odorous, 


Inodorous, 




^ Greasy. 


Clean. 



Compare all the substances mentioned above. It will 
often tax the observing powers of both teacher and 
pupils to the utmost to obtain correct and comprehen- 
sive statements. The results will pay. 



THIRD COURSE — Parts, Qualities, Comparisons, and Uses. 



Parts. 



Qualities. Uses and Comparisons. 



Ak Apple — Eye, 


Spherical, 




Core, 


Juicy, 




Peel, 


Hard, 




Pulp, 


Solid, 


To be 


Juice, 


Opaque, 


supplied 


Stalk, 


Odorous, 


by the 


Surface, 


Colored, 


teacher. 


Inside, 


Natural, 




Outside, 


Sweet or sour, 





Seeds, etc. Vegetable. 

In a similar manner treat the following substances : 

Book, Chair, Pen, Oyster, Oil, 

Egg, - Knife, Key, Water, Milk, 

Bird, Orange, Acorn, Ink, Stone, 

Cork, Glue, Honey, Needle, Vinegar. 



40 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

Remarks. — It matters not whether these lessons are 
called object-, objective-, or sense-lessons ; their impor- 
tance cannot be questioned. So many of our scholars 
are not able to see what is right before their eyes that 
often the teacher has occasion to be discouraged. They 
grow up having eyes which see not and ears which hear 
not, or if they do see, it is " men as trees walking." 

The study of books will not give that quickness of 
perception so necessary to success in life. The outward 
world must be studied. What gives success to the 
chemist, surveyor, merchant, farmer, sailor, engineer, 
blacksmith, carpenter, bricklayer, and builder, but a 
certain sharpness in seeing things ? The successful 
workman owes his superiority to the fact that he per- 
ceives what others do not perceive. Edison looks, feels, 
hears, and tastes what others have overlooked. 

Sharpness in perception is at the foundation of the 
thousand improvements of the present age. We see and 
hear what other ages have seen and heard but did not 
know it. How often do we hear the expression, "I 
have looked at that a hundred times, but never saw it 
before "I Eyes must be trained to see, and all the 
senses to act. 



A TTENTION. 41 



adapter VMX> 

ATTENTION. 

The derivation of words often gives us correct ideas 
of their application. We have examples of this in atten- 
tion, from ad to and Undo, I bend, and abstraction, abs 
from and traho I draw. Abstraction is the drawing the 
thought away from other objects ; attention is the bend- 
ing of all our powers to the thinking of that which has 
become the object of thought. There must be some- 
thing to think of before we can think, and we must 
have the ability to keep our thoughts upon this some- 
thing before we can secure attention. It is compara- 
tively easy to fix thought upon one thing, but it is 
much harder to keep it there for any length of time. 

Attention is not a distinct faculty as memory or imag- 
ination, but it underlies and is essential to them all. 
Although it originates nothing, yet nothing can be done 
without it. Let us now consider how it acts. "When 
we go into the fields many impressions are made upon 
the senses. We at once select one object ; this becomes 
the object of thought, perhaps only for an instant, when 
another is attended to, and another, and so on during 
the walk. If we see some one thing, as a flower, that 
we desire especially to examine, the will is brought into 



42 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 



action and other objects are excluded. Perhaps we 
shade our eyes so as more easily to exclude a desire to 
attend to anything else. We learn that at first there is 
an unwilling or involuntary attention, and then a will- 
ing or voluntary attention. When we return home we 
shut our eyes and mentally recall all that we have seen. 
The amount and vividness of this re-eall-ing or re-collect- 
ing is exactly proportioned to the completeness of the 
attention. 

Principle. — That which we will to attend to is recol- 
lected easily ; the rest is easily forgotten. 

Lesson.— The will must be called into active exercise 
if the objects of attention are to be apprehended. 

Illustration. — The following dialogue is to the point. 
A pupil said, " I cannot understand this lesson." 

" Have you studied it ?" 

"Yes, sir. I have been studying it for more than an 
hour, and I have no idea of a single line." 

6 ' Tell me what games you played at recess." 

"Yes, sir. We played two," etc. 

" You remember how many fish you caught last week, 
Saturday?" 

"I brought home seventeen, and had lots of sport 
thrown in." 

"You seem to remember outside things very well. 
Why can you not remember books as well ?" 

" The fact is, sir, that my mind is full of ball-games, 
fishing, hunting, and outside affairs. It's away off." 

" That is the reason you cannot learn. If you can 
bring your mind here and think of what you are read- 
ing, you will remember and understand well enough," 



A TTENTION. 43 



Application. — Some way must be found to influence 
the wills of pupils before they can give attention to what 
they study. The means of accomplishing this are 
various. Under the old masters the rod was used, and 
in many cases it was effectual. The pupil felt "I 
must," then "I will," and afterward followed attention 
and success. 

Here should follow a discussion of proper and im- 
proper motives, affections and desires, as means of bring- 
ing the will into vigorous exercise, and securing atten- 
tion. It is of the utmost importance that they should be 
understood; here is the outline of the argument: 

MOTIVES : 

1. Love of Truth, Purity, and Eight. 

2. The Joy of Discovery. 

3. The Rewards of Success. 

4. Love of Study. . 

5. Sympathy and Personal Attachment. 

6. The Hope of Approval, or Desire of Esteem. 

7. Desire of Influence and Power. 



I. 



1. Pride of Position and Desire of Glory. 

2. Emulation. 

3. Vanity of Success. 

4. Fear of Punishment : 
II. ^ a. Of the Body— Pain; 

b. Of the Mind — Disgrace — Low Marks; 

c. Fear of Eidicule and Scolding. 

5. Desire of Property 

6. Desire to satisfy the Demands of our Appetites. 



44 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 
AFFECTIONS AND DESIRES: 

1. The objects of Desires are things. 

2. The objects of Affections are living beings. 

3. The Desires appropriate their objects to them- 

selves. . 

4. The Affections flow from us to other living 

beings. 

5. Pity is (1) an emotion in view of distress, and 

(2) an impulse to relieve it. 

6. Affection is an element of Love. 

7. Affections that come from our association with 

others are : 

a. Friendship, 

b. Gratitude, 

c. Sympathy, 

d. Respect, 

e. Love. 



It is only when the emotion exists in an undue degree, or with regard to 
unworthy objects, when the supposed excellence upon which we congratu- 
late ourselves really does not exist, or, when existing, we are disposed to set 
ourselves up above others for the lack of it, or even to make them feel by 
our manner and bearing, what and how great the difference is between them 
and us; it is only under such forms and modifications that the feeling be- 
comes culpable and odious. These it not unfrequently assumes. They are 
the states of mind commonly denoted by the term pride, as the word is used 
in common speech; and the censure usually and very justly attached to the 
state of mind designated by that term must be understood as applicable to 
the disposition and feelings now described, and not to the simple emotion 
of pleasure in view of our own real or supposed attainments. That which 
we condemn in the proud man is not that he excels others, or is conscious 
of excelling, or takes pleasure even in that consciousness; but that, com- 
paring himself with others, and feeling his superiority, he is disposed to 
think more highly of himself than he ought, on account of it, and more con- 
temptuously of others than he ought; and especially if he seeks to impress 
. others with the sense of that superiority.— Joseph Haven's "Mental Phi- 
losophy." 



PERCEPTION. 45 



PERCEPTION. 

Something touches me, the nerves receive the im- 
pression and transmit it to the brain ; there it produces 
a sensation. The intellect may not be impressed; if 
it is not, no permanent result is produced; if it is, a 
perception is the effect. The act of perceiving a 
sensation is a perception. The result of this process, 
or what is perceived, is called a percept. 

It will be noticed that perception is an act of the in- 
tellect. Many sensations reach the mind, but fail to 
become perceptions because there is no discrimination 
aroused. This is the reason why so many times pupils 
hear, see, and even answer without remembering. They 
have eyes but they see not, ears but hear not. Their 
senses are acute, their brains in good working order, but 
the proper perceptions are not produced, therefore they 
learn nothing. 

Two Steps in Perception. — 1. In order to perceive there 
must le DISCRIMINATION. 

A voice is heard, the head is turned, the eyes look, 
the countenance is brightened; here is evidence of dis- 
crimination. Other sounds are heard lut not perceived, 



46 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

because they are not separated from their surroundings. 
This voice is separated from its surroundings; in other 
words, it is discriminated. 

At first all objects are alike to the child; soon it dis- 
criminates a light and perceives it; soon it discriminates 
a sound, as of a bell, and turns its head in the direction 
from which it comes; soon it discriminates its mother's 
voice, and attends to it; soon it discriminates her face, 
and smiles. Now perception is fully established, and 
mental action assured. Until a child smiles in response 
to motives, there is little evidence that it has healthy 
mental action. From this moment on, the mind begins 
to grow, but notice the order: sensation, discrimination, 
perception. This is the one order from infancy through 
life. 

2. The second step in perception is association and 

EE-COLLECTING. 

A child hears a sound which produces a pleasing per- 
ception. It smiles the next time it hears the same 
sound; it recalls the former association, and it smiles 
again. This association of one sensation with other 
sensations, and the ability to recall these associations, is 
the highest kind of perception. Here we notice the rep- 
resentative faculty. The order may be from nerves to 
the brain, or sensation ; the impression, or the presen- 
tative faculty; the recalling of these impressions, or the 
representative faculty. 

Notes. — 1. The nerves must be in good working order 
if they are to convey correct messages. 

2. The impressions must be distinct if the mind is 
expected to retain them. 



Perception. 47 



3. Perception is a process of grouping. As there can 
be no association without grouping, the arrangement of 
material for thought must be carefully attended to. 

4. Single sense perceptions are not likely to be re- 
called. 

5. Touch and sight supply more objects than any 
other senses. These need careful cultivation. 

6. The training of all the senses must be carefully at- 
tended to if we expect to reach the mind. 

7. As all the materials of perception come through 
the avenues of the senses, it follows that the training of 
the senses is a subject of paramount importance to 
teachers. We learn to see by seeing, to hear by hear- 
ing, to feel by feeling. 



One of the best methods of educating the perceptive powers is by the 
study of some science, as botany, geology, zoology, or some form of natural 
history. These ought to take us out of doors, put us in the fields and woods, 
show us Nature, open our eyes, and awaken observation. The botanist walks 
on, hour after hour, searching for some plant, till he detects its habitat by 
the side of a stream, or on the damp borders of a quiet lake. The ornithol- 
ogist steps with the light tread of an Indian over the rocks and leaves, 
following the whistle of a thrush, or the cry of a cat-bird, till he detects the 
little lady, sitting in maiden meditation, fancy free, among the leaves, and 
watches her gentle movements, till he comes to know her by heart. Then 
the student of geology walks over hill and plain, reading a great history of 
one hundred thousand years in the swell and roll of the meadow, in the 
rounded escarpment of rocks, in the long level of the plateaus. But the 
powers of observation are educated by the study of art. as well as by the study 
of nature. Every child ought to learn to draw, as well as to read and write; 
not in order to draw poor figures and bad landscapes, but in order to sketch 
easily and readily whatever object he sees and wishes to remember. The 
power of drawing in perspective, which can be acquired in a week, is a 
satisfaction during one's life. Sketching picturesque objects— trees, faces, 
forms — leads to observation cultivates observation. — James Freeman 
Clarke's "Self-Culture." 



48 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 



chapter X. 

ABSTRACTION. 

The child at first perceives nothing distinctly. 

Its lesson in gaining knowledge is to separate objects 
— to draw away one thing from its associate things. 
This is the first step in "abstraction." The child does 
not know himself for some time. A boy has been 
known to bite his own arm, as though it had been a 
foreign object. Children always speak of themselves as 
of another person. They are continually saying, "Mary 
wants some milk," or " Johnnie must have some candy." 
Generally during the third year there is a substitution 
of "me," "I," and "my," for the proper name, and 
this marks the commencement of an idea of the in- 
dividual self. Now the recognition of personal. feelings 
of pleasure, pain, hopes, and fears begins to be realized. 

The higher idea of the mental self — the power of 
turning the mind inward and noticing mental pro- 
cesses — marks a much later period in mental growth. 
In fact, this period is often never reached by many 
whose mind-culture is neglected or misapplied. Teach- 
ers should carefully watch the beginning of this most 
important faculty. The following hints will be of value 
in pursuing this interesting investigation: 



ABSTRACTION. 49 

Two Facts in Abstraction. — 1. It seems to be certain 
that children attribute life to everything they see. They 
seem to think everything can move and talk. A little 
girl of five once said to her mother, ' ' Ma, I do think 
this hoop must be alive, it goes whenever I want it to." 
The mind soon gets the power of discriminating between 
living and dead things. But even after this power is 
acquired there is delight in playing with dolls, sticks, 
and small stones, as though they were men and women, 
horses, or cats and dogs. This habit marks the connec- 
tion between the old infantile notions and the higher 
ideas of abstraction, and especially imagination. 

2. The second step in the growth of abstraction is the 
power of attributing definite feelings to others, as wise, 
kind, and good, or their opposites. These qualities be- 
come personified in mother, father, brother, or sister, so 
that the very sight of these persons is certain to excite 
the feeling in them with which they are associated. The 
presence of a certain person has given them joy. He 
goes away, but when he returns and the child sees him, 
instantly the same feeling is excited again. Or a certain 
person has caused fear. The return of this individual 
is sure to make the child afraid, and it cries as if in 
great danger, and will not be pacified until the obnox- 
ious personification of fear goes away. Thus we see the 
commencement of the faculties of abstraction, associ- 
ation, and imagination. How common is it to talk to 
the child through the language of abstract association. 
Instead of saying "dog," we say "bow-wow;" instead 
of "cat" we say " meow." The language is understood. 
But it must be noticed that at first the words apply to 



50 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

all cats and dogs. There is no discrimination. Ab- 
straction is not strong enough yet. One watch is the 
same as all watches; one name the same as all names. 
But soon different persons are discriminated; different 
dogs and cats known and named. Ideas become defi- 
nitely abstracted and named. 

It is very important to the teacher to notice how this 
growth proceeds and is encouraged in definiteness and 
distinctness. It is through the power of noticing the 
differences and likenesses that the faculty of compari- 
son is early brought into play. At first a goat will be a 
"bow-wow," and the child seizes readily a pear for an 
apple or an orange; but soon these objects stand out 
clearly in the mind, for the child has noted and remem- 
bered differences by means of comparison. Roses and 
daisies are known, and the mind has acquired new and 
remarkable powers. It is not necessary to inquire at 
what age this comes. When it does come it marks a dis- 
tinct era in the mental growth. 

3. The growth of language keeps pace with the growth 
of ideas. The use of adjectives commences when ab- 
straction and conception become definitely developed. 
The words "big," "hot," "bad," "good," "nice," are 
soon learned. A boy of twenty-two months old, seeing 
a rook fly over its head, cried out, " Big bird!" Teach- 
ers should be extremely careful not to give words until 
the ideas which they embody are certain to be clearly in 
the mind. Here is an axiom of the " New Educa- 
tion." 

The old masters piled words upon words, with no care 
to ascertain whether they were understood or not ; in 



ABSTR4CTI0N. 5 1 



fact, they piled them on and crammed them in, fully 
knowing they were not understood. It was a practice 
not at all productive of mind growth, but rather of its 
destruction. How soon has a child an idea of number? 
How soon can it discriminate between yesterday, to- 
morrow, day before yesterday, and next week? A cat 
can count. When one was left with only one kitten it 
was miserable, but when two were left out of five it was 
happy. Horses have been known to count as high as 
three or four. It takes a long time before children can 
distinguish two from three and four, and so on. 

Note.— See Sully's " Outlines of Psychology " and Brooks's " Mental Sci- 
ence and Culture." 



METHODS OF DEVELOPING THE POWER OP AB- 
STRACTION". 

Before the thought can be directed to one subject, it 
must be separated from other subjects. Abstraction is 
the power of drawing away a single mental image from 
its associates. By most authors it is called attention, 
but a moment's thought will convince any one that 
there must be the poiver of exclusion before anything 
can be excluded. This act of drawing away a single 
idea from its surroundings is abstraction; the act of 
fixing the mind upon one object, and keeping it there, 
is attention. How may we discipline the mind to select 
single objects of thought, is the question we shall try to 
answer. 

Several Methods Explained. — 1. By observing similar- 
ities and differences. When twenty or thirty pieces of 



52 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

colored paper are placed on the table, the pupils can be 
asked to select and place side by side those that are 
alike. In the same manner a pile of stones can be sorted 
— first, as to size, and then as to weight. In the same 
manner bottles containing liquids of different colors 
can be classified, geometric forms arranged, and species 
of animals and plants inspected. Great care must be 
used to cultivate all the senses — hearing, smelling, 
tasting, feeling, seeing, and the faculty of reckoning 
distance. 

In training very young children simple objects must, 
of course, be used. They can be interested in assorting 
a pile of sticks of different lengths, or making many 
lines on paper or the board, of exactly the same length" 
as a specimen given. In all of these exercises the power 
of comparing many different objects and classifying 
them should be constantly exercised, and great care used 
in keeping the work so adapted to the learner's advance- 
ment that he will not lose interest in what is placed be- 
fore him. He must not grow weary of what he is asked 
to do, for, as has been said before, and will often be said 
again, interest is of prime importance. 

It must be remembered that this interest is to be 
obtained and kept through the work itself, and not 
through outside things. Keep at one line of thought, 
and in it hold the interest until some definite end is ac- 
complished. 

2. The faculty of abstraction can be exercised by the 
use of name words. The abstract idea must be gained 
before the word is learned. Mr. Sully says that " a lit- 
tle boy, twenty-six months old, while watching a dog 



ABSTRACTION. 53 



panting after a run, exclaimed, with evident pleasure, 
'Dat like a puff puif '" (locomotive). It would have 
been folly to have required that boy to pronounce the 
word "locomotive" before he had an abstract idea of it; 
and what is true of this word is true of every important 
word learned. It is extremely interesting to trace the 
child's progress in the use of words. 

Take foods, for example. At first no food is known, 
and nothing is abstracted from its surroundings. 
Everything goes to the mouth. Soon one thing after 
another is rejected until a few articles are selected 
from all the rest, and their names learned. It is 
by no means necessary that the words should be short 
ones at first. The old plan of commencing with u ab, 
eb, ib, ob, ub/' and then adding a letter to each, and so 
proceeding until full words were built up, was a mis- 
taken application of synthetical teaching. True, after 
a while the child had formed "abstract, ebony, ibex, 
object, ubiquity," etc., but in what condition was the 
mind left, and what power beyond memory was culti- 
vated? In fact, nothing was accomplished, for when 
we come to consider what memory is, and how it is 
strengthened, we shall find that this faculty, under this 
old empirical way of teaching, was weakened rather than 
made strong. 

3. Action words are readily learned. It is compara- 
tively easy to gain abstract notions of running, leaping, 
rocking, laughing, etc., and their names. It is harder 
to teach abstract ideas of objects and their names. We 
can think abstractly of boy, girl, stick, but not as easily 
as of laughing, singing, and eating. 



54 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

But when we come to teach the abstract idea of larger 
things, made up of many simples, we shall find diffi- 
culty. For example, we wish to teach the idea of a 
mountain. A small sand elevation is fashioned, and, 
pointing to it, we say, "Mountain." Smoke and fire 
are made to issue from its summit, and we now say, 
"Volcano." If we are not certain the abstract ideas are 
in the mind, the words should not be pronounced. Ac- 
cording to the principles of good teaching, the words 
mountain, volcano, city, ocean, river, should not be ut- 
tered — the learner should not hear them — until the 
pictures of them, apart from all other objects, are clearly 
in the mind. You say, " Is this possible?" We answer, 
It is 'possible. 

Pass beyond this boundary-line, and permit the child 
to use words conveying to his mind no abstract idea, 
and we enter at once into the land of rote teaching, and 
the old education. You can now only cram, regard- 
less of present or future consequences. The very first 
principles of the philosophy of the mind oppose this 
teaching. 

Use may be made of pictures. The larger the idea 
to be learned, the larger should be the picture. An 
example of this is afforded in the words ocean and city. 
It must be remarked that connecting words and particles, 
as and, but, the, by, of, in, an, a, etc., are used without 
thought. They really convey no idea. They are only 
words " thrown in" to fill up the spaces at first. The 
-child says: "Cow, garden!" " Fire, house !" "Moth- 
er, sick!" "Finger, ache!" The filling-up words add 
no additional meaning. 



ABSTRA CTION. 5 5 



4. Abstraction is next cultivated by learning qualities. 
These must, of course, be apprehended, by abstracting 
the ideas from objects. This is difficult. The teacher 
must proceed slowly and carefully. In future chapters, 
instruction as to the correct method of proceeding will 
be given. At present only a few hints can be thrown 
out. Take, for example, the word "good." It is at 
first associated with some person, as mother; then with 
some thing, as apple. It is then contrasted, as with a 
rotten apple, or bad person. Its opposite must of neces- 
sity be learned at the same time. Soon the child has the 
abstract idea of " goodness," "badness," "kindness," 
" cruelty," "love," "hate." Here we have a difficult 
lesson, but nevertheless one of great importance; in fact 
the value to be attached to the learning correctly of such 
abstract ideas as we have suggested cannot be overesti- 
mated. The lesson must not be given too early in the 
pupil's life, but gradually the abstraction gain posses- 
sion of the mind. When the time comes that the mind 
apprehends abstract qualities, a stage of advancement 
has been reached indicating great mental power. 
Teachers must learn to watch the commencement of 
this period, for it marks an exceedingly important era in 
mental growth. 

5. The highest abstract power possessed by the mind 
is mathematwaL We do not say that a mathematical 
mind is the most perfect type of intellect, but it unques- 
tionably marks the most complete power of abstraction. 

No human mind can comprehend 1,000,000, and it 
has been stated that few can conceive even 100. When 
the mind comes to think abstractly of quantity, it has 



$6 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

gained a wonderful power. Children find it difficult to 
think of even the quantity 10 without visible objects. 
But teachers need not trouble themselves on this point, 
for numbers can and should be used to express operations 
which may he understood, even though the quantities 
represented by each separate number cannot be abstractly 
conceived. For example, we can understand the opera- 
tion 5754 X 7674 = x, without abstractly knowing 5754 
or 7674. 



To form general notions, more thah one object must be given. To form 
abstract notions, but one is required. Example: This apple is red. When 
we have separated the quality designated by the term red from the subject 
to which it belongs, we then have the abstract notion designated by the term 
redness. The same holds in all other instances. 

In explaining the origin and genesis of universal and necessary ideas, in 
their abstract and universal form, we will take as the basis of our explana- 
tion and illustration the principle of causality; to wit, every event has a 
cause. 

It is admitted that originally this principle is not given in this form. 
What is given? Some particular event and the judgment. This particular 
event had a cause. It is also admitted and affirmed that the universal 
principle is not here, as is true of contingent general principles given by the 
succession of particulars. For if you suppose the event repeated a thousand 
or a million times, all that you have in each instance is the particular event 
and the particular affirmation. This event had a cause. How then shall we 
account for the formation of the idea, or principle, under consideration ? 
Let us recur to the individual fact above alluded to — the fact composed of 
two parts; the empirical and absolute parts. We will leave out of view the 
idea of succession, and confine ourselves to the one fact before us. 

By immediate abstraction let us suppose the separation of the empirical, 
and the disengagement of the necessary and absolute. We then have the 
pure idea of the absolute and necessary. This idea thus developed, we find 
it impossible not to apply to all cases, real or supposed. We have then, and 
in this manner, the universal, necessary, and absolute idea or principle. 

This process might perhaps be more distinctly explained by a reference to 
the ideas of body and space. These ideas are not originally given in their 
present simple abstract form. They are given in such propositions as this: 
This particular body is somewhere, or in space. Here you have the empiri- 
cal part, body, and the necessary and absolute part, space. Separate the 
two, and you have the contingent idea of body, and the necessary and ab- 
solute idea of space. Hence the principle, universal, necessary, and absolute : 
Body implies space.— Mahan's " Mental Philosophy." 



FACULTIES USED IN ABSTRACT THINKING, tf 



FACULTIES USED IN ABSTRACT THINKING. 

I. Memory. 

Memory retains all past ideas and perceptions in the 
mind. 

Recollection recalls them. 

Fancy takes old recollections, and modifies and com- 
bines them afresh. 

Whatever we see we get a perception of ; then a fac- 
simile — a representative of this perception is stored away 
in thekinemory, but it is not the same. 

Eecollection is usually spontaneous ; not an act of the 
will, though the will may help. 

Memory is a storehouse of materials for thought. 
Without it one could not gain a knowledge of the first 
principles governing all action. 

II. Conception. 

That idea which gives one all the common properties 
of a class of objects — a general idea, embracing all par- 
ticulars. 

There may be (1) phenomenal, or sense conception ; 
(2) thought or understanding conceptions; (3) reason 
(or ideal) conceptions. 



58 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

III. Association. 

The representatives stored in the memory are asso- 
ciated, still tending towards unity. 

Association may be (1) from natural coming together 
in time ; (2) from the likeness or strong contrast of one 
thing to another. This may be called association by 
suggestion ; (3) or the mind can make arbitrary connec- 
tions of unrelated facts. 

Certain associations of thought will influence both the 
personal and national character. 

IV. Abstraction. 

Takes one idea from an association of ideas, in order 
to study and understand it better. 
The chief operation in analysis. 

V. Reflection. 

A turning bach of the mind to consider a past con- 
ception, either for (1) analysis; (2) finding its philo- 
sophical or logical connections ; (3) or for using it to 
illustrate some other conception by comparison or con- 
trast. 

VI. Judgment. 

A judgment is a determined connection of two con- 
ceptions as subject and predicate. There are two kinds 
of judgments : 

1. Analytical. 

2. Synthetical. 

VII. Imagination. 

. It may be of two kinds : 

1. Eeproduction ; and 

2. Originally productive. 



FACULTIES USED IN ABSTRACT THINKING. 59 

f ' A fanciful dress merely strikes the sense ; imagina- 
tion puts thought into it, and makes it to express some 
conformity to character and circumstances." 



THE BEASOK". 

The reason comprehends those things that go beyond 
or before experience. 

The principles conditional for all knowledge belong to 
rational psychology ; but the reason's use of such prin- 
ciples comes within the range of experience. 

I. The reason modifies every other faculty. 
II. The reason recognizes the supernatural in nature ; 
the understanding cannot attain to a first cause. 

III. The reason holds the ideals, or archetypes of abso- 

lute perfection. 
These archetypes, when manifested to the human 
reason in 

(1) form (beauty), 

(2) principle (truth), 

(3) the personal self (good?iess), 

are spoken of as " The Beautiful," "The True," 
"The Good." 

IV. The reason inspires the fancy and imagination, 

producing genius. 
" The genius is either artist, sage, or, in the lib- 
eral sense of the word, hero; as in large degree 
he sees and expresses the ' Beautiful/ the 'True/ 
or the < Good/" 



60 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 



Suppose an engineer has constructed an iron tubular bridge, and finds 
that it is just strong enough to bear the strain it is subject to— a strain re- 
sulting mainly from its own weight. Suppose further that he is required to 
construct another bridge of like kind, but of double the span. Possibly it 
will be concluded that for this new bridge he might simply magnify the 

Srevious design in all its particulars— make the tube double the depth, 
ouble the width, and double the thickness, as well as double the length. 
But he sees that a bridge so proportioned would not support itself— he 
infers that the depth or thickness must be more than double. 

By what arts of thought does he reach this conclusion ? He knows, in the 
first place, that the bulks of similar masses of matter are to each other as 
the cubes of their linear dimensions; and that, consequently, when the 
masses are not only similar in form but of the same material, the weights 
also are as the cubes of the linear dimensions. He knows, too, that in simi- 
lar masses of matter which are subject to compression or tension, or, as in 
this case, to the transverse strain, the power of resistance varies as the 
squares of the linear dimensions. Hence he sees that if another bridge be 
built proportioned in all respects exactly like the first, but of double the 
size, the weight of it— that is, the gravitative force, or force tending to make 
it bend and break— will have increased as the cubes of the dimensions; while 
the sustaining force, or force by which breaking is resisted, will have in- 
creased only as the squares of the dimensions, and the bridge must there- 
fore give way. Or, to present the reasoning in a formal manner, he sees 
that the 

Sustaining force in I . j Sustaining force in ) . . , 2 . 22 . 
the small tube j ' ( the large tube J ' ' 

whilst at the same time he sees that the 

Destroying force in ) . j Destroying force in | . . 13 . 23 . 
the small tube f ' 1 the large tube J ' ' 

whence he infers that the destroying force has increased in a much greater 
ratio than the sustaining force, the larger tube cannot sustain itself, seeing 
that the smaller one has no excess of strength. But now, leaving out of 
sight the various acts by which the premises are reached, and the final in- 
ference is drawn, let us consider the nature of the cognition that the ratio 
between the sustaining forces in the two tubes must differ from the ratio 
between the destroying forces; for this cognition it is which here concerns 
us, as exemplifying the most complex ratiocination. There is, be it ob- 
served, no direct comparison between these two ratios. How, then, are they 
known to be unlike? Their unlikeness is known through the intermediation 
of two other ratios to which they are severally equal.— Spencer's " Syn- 
thetic Philosophy. " 



FROM THE SUBJECTIVE TO THE CONCEPTIVE. 6l 



adapter XM. 

FROM THE SUBJECT^E TO THE CONCEPTIVE. 

Seeing with the eyes shut what has never been seen 
with the eyes open is the great object to be reached in 
our schools. How can this be? You have never been 
to China, but you can see that country, if you have 
studied geography properly, with great correctness. If 
you have learned only the map, with its black lines and 
colored surfaces, you cannot see the real China, only the 
map of it. 

The Object of Sense-training. — The prime object of 
sense training is to enable the learner to see, hear, feel, 

TASTE, AND SMELL, IN HIS MIND, AS A RESULT OF SENSE- 
IMPRESSIONS. In other words, to use his mind. For 
example: there is a kind of so-called geography in our 
schools, that is not geography at all, for it leaves no real 
impressions. It consists only in memorizing names and 
figures. The true learning of geography familiarizes 
pupils with the entire world, so that they can travel in 
imagination over it, even though they have never been 
ten miles from home. What is true of geography is 
also true of history. This study is nothing but a series 
of picture-impressions. We see Alexander the Great, 
Marathon, Thermopylae, Waterloo, Saratoga. The viv- 



62 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

idness of these thoughts is just in proportion to the 
value of the history studied. 

In connection with this subject we quote the words of 
Mr. Geo. P. Brown as exactly to the point. He says: 

The teacher must recognize the fact that the learning of a de- 
scriptive lesson consists, essentially, - in the development of a men- 
tal picture in the mind of the pupil ; and that the merit of the 
teaching will be exactly proportioned to the clearness and sharp- 
ness of outline which this picture presents. He must also see that 
the teaching of the explanatory portions of a lesson consists essen- 
tially in causing the pupil to apprehend relations between ideas, 
and that those relations are chiefly those of cause and effect. 

He must test his pupils — not simply to ascertain whether they 
can repeat the words of the lesson, but to ascertain whether their 
mental picture of things described, and their understanding of 
things explained, are accurate. 

In what way can teachers succeed in reaching such 
results is the great question before mind students to-day. 

How to Teach Relations between Ideas. — The object 
is not directly to cultivate the memory; in other words, 
he must not stock the mind with useful facts, in store 
for the possible contingencies of life, hut to get it in 
shape to do the thinking of life. Memory grows strong 
as other faculties grow strong. Without strength in 
other directious there is no strength of memory. 

2. Effort on the part of the child must be voluntary. 
Pleasure must be associated with the exertions of the 
learner. It is a fundamental principle of mind-culture 
that all real growth is voluntary activity. Pleasure that 
comes from success is the purest, next to religion, that 
we experience; it is also the most beneficial. 



FROM THE SUBJECTIVE TO THE CONCEPTIVE. 63 

3. The habit of associating similars and discriminat- 
ing dissimilars is very important. This requires much 
thought when properly done. It is almost the first les- 
son in early life and the last in old age. From it come 
most important results. 

4. The power of drawing correct conclusions and 
judgments is necessary. This is essential. 

Now let us see where we are. 

Suppose a student has been trained — 

To think for himself ; in other words, to see things 
correctly ; 

To act voluntarily ; 

To associate similars and discriminate dissimilars ; 

To draw correct judgment; 

What next? He will undoubtedly have clear and cor- 
red conceptions. This is as certain as cause and effect. 

Why have we wrong conceptions of our sur- 
roundings? 

1. Because we have no power of independent thought. 
We do not see things correctly. We do not do our own 
thinking. Somebody tells us, we believe and act. 

2. Because we do not act voluntarily. We are led by 
others. We follow and get into trouble we cannot get 
out of. 

3. We cannot associate two or three actions and from 
them conclude, but act on the spur of the moment from 
the first evidence that comes to us. 

4. We have no power of calm judgment. 

Such a person will be a slave, not a master— a fol- 
lower, not a leader. The more we study the mind, the 
clearer we see the fact that all true education proceeds 



64 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

from the known— what is seen, heard and felt and tasted 
— by successive steps to what is conceived to be seen, 
heard, felt, and tasted. When these conceptions are 
clear and correct, and we are able to express them so as 
to convey correct ideas to others, we have a good educa- 
tion. A mental machine in good working order is what 
we want. To make it as nearly perfect as possible is the 
work of the teacher. 



My notion of a table, for example, is that of an object possessing certain 
qualities, as form, size, weight, color, hardness, each of which qualities is 
Known to me by a distinct act of perception, if not by a distinct sense, and 
each of which is capable, accordingly, of being distinctly, and by itself, an 
object of thought or conception. The understanding combines these several 
conceptions, and thus forms the complex notion of a table. The notion thus 
formed is neither more nor less than the aggregate, or combination of the 
several elementary conceptions already indicated. When I am called on to 
define my complex conception, I can only specify these several elementary 
notions which go to make up my idea of the table. I can say it is an object 
round, or square, of such magnitude, that it is of such or such material, of 
this or that color, and designed for such and such uses. 

Now when I affirm that the table is round, I state one of the several quali- 
ties of the object so called, one of the several parts of the complex notion. 
It is a partial analysis of that complex conception. I separate from the 
whole one of its component parts, and then affirm that it sustains the rela- 
tion of a part to the comprehensive whole. The separation is a virtual 
analysis. The affirmation is an act of judgment expressed in the form of a 
proposition. Every proposition is, in fact, a species of synthesis, and im- 
plies the previous analysis of the conception, or comprehensive whole, 
whose component parts are thus brought together. Thus, when I say snow 
is white, man is mortal, the earth is round, I simply affirm of the object des- 
ignated one of the qualities which go to make up my conception of that 
object. Every such statement or proposition involves an analysis of the 
complex conception which forms the subject of the proposition, while the 
thing predicated or affirmed is, that the quality designated— the result of 
such analysis— is one of the parts constituting that complex whole.— Joseph 
Haven's r ' Mental, Philosophy. 



THE WILL. 65 



adapter XEXJL 

THE WILL. 

u The star of the unconquered will, — 
He rises in my breast, 
Serene, and resolute, and still, 
And calm, and self-possessed." — Tennyson. 

The True Order of Knowledge is : (1) willing, (2) 
doing, (3) knowing. Christ expressed this truth when 
he said : "If any man will do His will, he shall know of 
the doctrine." 

Dr. Tyndall says : ee The first condition of success is 
an honest receptivity, and a willingness to abandon all 
preconceived notions." 

Pascal says : "Begin with being a better man, and you 
will soon have my principles." 

If we desire to know anything, we must first be honest 
and willing to do whatever is necessary to be done. 
Without this no one can learn. "We must feel free to 
exercise our will as we please. This is at the basis of all 
our accountability to God and each other — a free will A 
child cannot be made to study properly against his will. 
Somehow, the consent of his will must be obtained. How 
can this be done ? 



66 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

Sully says : " The motive to voluntary action is the 
gratification of some feeling ; as ambition, love of ap- 
plause, etc., etc." Motives alone move the will. These 
must be studied carefully by the teacher. Let us take 
one or two illustrations. 

A child has a great unwillingness to study a certain 
branch or do a certain thing. The teacher skilfully 
leads him to do a little, and shows him that the result is 
pleasant and easy. It may be arithmetic. Easy examples 
are selected; success is achieved, commendation is given, 
and pleasurable emotions a reexcited. Skilfully, more 
difficult problems are assigned, the same success is gained, 
and more pleasure received. Soon he is thoroughly in- 
terested, and new difficulties can be easily surmounted, 
for the will is thoroughly aroused. How ? By means of 
carefully-applied motives. 

Belief comes before desire, and desire comes before 
willing. Prom desire and willing come impulse. When 
the will is not governed by proper motives, it is said to 
be " ungoverned" impulse. 

Think carefully of this analysis. Notice your mental 
processes. 

A little girl desires to go to a neighbor's. Why? Be- 
cause she believes there is something there she either wants 
to see, or do, or tell. Her belief is strong, therefore her 
motives are strong, thus her will is strong. Now, if her 
will is not governed by proper motives, she may become 
impulsive, and if not permitted to do as she likes, she 
may throw herself down in a fit of crying or passion. 
Let a student of the mind commence a careful examina- 
tion of personal experience in the following manner : 



THE WILL. 6j 



Think of something you desire strongly to have or do. 
"Why do yon desire it? Because you believe its posses- 
sion will do something great for you. If what you 
desire is within your possible reach, and its possession 
will be of great good to you, or at least you think it will 
be, then the motives to attempt to get it are great, and 
your will is strongly exercised toward its possession. 

Are these things so? Examine yourself and see. In 
this way alone can you become a student of the mind. 
Your mind is like all other minds in its great features. 
Carefully answer the following questions: Do all state- 
ments made to you excite desire? Why not? Why does 
a child desire candy? Why do you desire a good salary? 
Why are we all gratified with a high social position? 
Does a beautiful landscape or charming music excite 
desire? Why? Why do you desire to become better? 
Why do you desire to go to heaven when you die? Does 
pain excite desire? How? 

Sully says: " Desire implies a sense or consciousness of 
want, deficiency, or the absence of something." Is this 
true? 

All of this is preliminary to the subject we have before 
us, but it is necessary that these questions should be 
settled before we proceed. 

Topics in Studying the Will. — The following topics in 
studying the will must be considered : 

1. The possession of a will in us implies an intellect. 
In other words, we must think, compare, imagine, etc., 
before we can intelligently will. 

2. The possession of a will in man implies feelings of 
like and dislike, hope and joy, as well as the stronger 



6S MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

passions of hate and love. In other words, if we will 
intelligently we must have sensibilities. 

3. By an effort of the will we can change onr intellec- 
tual processes, and greatly modify our sensibilities. On 
the other hand, the intellect and the sensibilities may 
greatly change the will. 

4. ( ' The understanding reaches the will through the 
sensibilities." — Upham. What does this mean? 

A Suggestion to Teachers. — Study your own mental 
processes, not so much by reading what others have said, 
as by thinking concerning your own mental acts, and 
observing the artless actions of children. Writing care- 
fully the results of your observations will help you amaz- 
ingly. 

A Few Facts. — 1. All parts of the mind are intimately 
connected. We can have no knowledge without a pre- 
vious sensation ; no memory without attention ; no 
reasoning without both memory and association; and 
neither reasoning nor imagination without the power of 
perceiving relations. The various activities of the mind 
seem to stand side by side, ready to assist each other, 
and are comparatively powerless without mutual aid. 
Take, for example, the emotions, desires, and passions. 
It is self-evident we cannot approve or disapprove, love 
or hate, admire or loathe, without some knowledge of 
the thing to be approved or disapproved, etc. 

2. If we could find one whose intellect is apparently 
destroyed, we should find one whose will is wanting. A 
little thought concerning mental action will convince any 
one that the will directs and controls the intellect. We 
will to imagine, memorize, reason, etc. ; in other words, 



THE WILL. 69 



the will is behind mental processes as a sort of motive 
force, impelling to action. The value of intellectual 
action depends upon its connection with the will. 

3. It follows, then, that there can be no will without 
something to be willed, as there can be no evidence of 
force without some material substance to be moved. We 
cannot will to love or hope unless we have love or hope, 
so that if there is a strong will there must be something 
that can be as strongly willed. We cannot strongly will 
to hate unless we can strongly hate. These statements 
are axiomatic, but, like all other axioms, are important 
in a process of investigation. 

4. The will can change our intellectual processes and 
modify our feelings, but not directly. This is a fact 
especially important to teachers. Let us see what this 
means. Read in Shakespeare, Antony on the death of 
Julius Caesar. What means does he use to incite the 
multitude to revenge, slaughter, and burnings, and rouse 
the will to terrific action? He talked to the people of 
the greatness of Caesar; he showed them the bloody 
mantle, then he appealed to their sensibilities by telling 
then concerning his bountiful legacies. By these means 
he got possession of their wills. If he had appealed 
directly to the wills of his hearers nothing would have 
been accomplished. What is true here is true everywhere 
and always. 

Knowing does not control the will. A certain person 
comes to the intellectual conclusion that a definite 
amount of property will benefit him, but if there is 
no desire or emotion he will make no effort to obtain 
money. 



70 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

A drunkard may know that intemperance will ruin 
health, and yet he will not reform. Your hope of suc- 
cess depends upon making him fear or dread the results 
of his indulgence on his own life or happiness. You can 
only reach him through his sensibilities. We may know 
there is pleasure or pain, but until we have these emotions 
they will not influence our wills. 

Locke says: " Let a man be ever so well persuaded of 
the advantages of virtue, yet, till he hungers and thirsts 
after righteousness, till he feels an uneasiness in the want 
of it, his will will not be determined to action. 

" Good, ever so great, must raise desires in our minds 
before it reaches our wills. " 

The sensibilities stand between the thinking powers 
and the willing power. The following diagram will show 
our meaning : 

Knowledge, -j Sensibilities. [ Will. 

" Strike out the sensibilities and you excavate a gulf 
of separation between the intellect and the will which is 
forever impassable. There is from that moment no 
medium of communication, no bond of union, no recip- 
rocal action." — Upham. 



DISEASES OF THE WILL. J I 



DISEASES OF THE WILL. 

The diseases of the will are classified by authors un- 
der four heads : 

I. Lack of Will-Powee. 
II. Excess of Will-Powee. 

III. Capeice. 

IV. Extinction. 

I. LACK OF WILL-POWEB. 

Guislain says that " persons affected in this manner 
can will to themselves, mentally, according to the dic- 
tates of reason, but the will is not transformed into 
active determination." Such individuals may have ex- 
cellent judgment and memories. Some persons, touched 
with this disease, say, " I know I should do as you say, 
but my strength fails me when I ought to act." Prof. 
J. H. Bennett speaks of ( ' a gentleman who frequently 
could not carry out what he wished to perform. On 
one occasion, having ordered a glass of water, it was 
presented to him on a tray, but he could not take it, 
though anxious to do so." Instances like these could 
be gathered from medical works, all showing that there 
is a disease affecting the will alone. 



>]2 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

But how does this concern teachers? There are mild 
forms of this disease in all our schools. Every teacher 
of several years' experience can recall many instances of 
apparently uncalled-for stubbornness, in which children 
from no apparent cause refused to do some simple act. 
No one can tell why the child acted as he did. Teach- 
ers and parents, and even the child himself, can assign 
no reason, only he apparently will not, while in fact he 
can not, and no amount of punishment will correct the 
fault. The more the mind is studied the more it is 
seen that much of the severe punishment of former days 
was through ignorance of mind diseases. Lack of will- 
impulsion is by no means uncommon among adults. 
Cases are seen in life daily. 

What shall be done with children who seem to have a 
lack of will-power? 

1. Negatively — never scold or blame. It will only in- 
tensify the difficulty. The author of this book, in his 
younger teaching days, punished a boy severely for not 
doing what it seemed to him he could as easily do as 
turn over his hand if he would. Why he would not was 
a mystery, and remained so until a study of mind-dis- 
eases revealed the cause. 

2. Negatively — the cure is not through the will; let 
that alone. Other powers must be rendered active, in 
hope that through them the will may resume its nor- 
mal tone. For example, use motives, gain confidence, 
excite affection, laughter, joy, hope, anticipation, even 
anxiety, and a little fear. Even the simple act of jump- 
ing or reading, singing or telling a story, may affect the 
will favorably. 



DISEASES OF THE WILL. 73 

3. Moral influences give tone to the will early in life. 
Children, seemingly unable to do what they ought to, 
or to resist doing what they ought not to do, can be 
strengthened by moral feelings. Let even a young pupil 
be thoroughly convinced that a certain line of action 
is wrong and will surely produce bad results, and there 
will be a strengthening of the will in that direction. 

4. Eepeating one kind of work many times strength- 
ens the will. Eeading aloud the same selection five 
times; writing the same number on a board thirty times; 
walking on a certain track backward and forward ten 
times; anything that tends to give the power of doing 
what one is told to do will strengthen this faculty. 

5. The habit of doing without asking a reason 
strengthens the will. A child who is always told the 
reason why is not likely to grow up with an improved 
will. He comes to expect an explanation, and if he can- 
not understand what is said, he is liable to refuse to do 
what he is asked. A boy is asked to take a letter to a 
neighbor's and get a certain article. He asks, "Why?" 
An explanation is attempted, he cannot comprehend the 
words, and refuses to go on the plea, "It's of no ac- 
count." The difficulty is in the way the boy has been 
trained. The probability is that unless a radical change 
takes place in the manner in which he is educated he 
will grow up either with no will of his own or with a 
stubborn disposition, Either result is possible. 



74 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 



II. EXCESS OP WILL-POWEB. 

We are indebted for many thoughts and facts in this 
book to the work on "Diseases of the Will/' by Th. 
Ribot. 

A case is mentioned of a woman of intelligence who 
used to feel the need of going into some lonely place and 
shouting aloud. Under these circumstances she would 
give vent to her grievances and complaints and sur- 
roundings. She knew perfectly well that it was wrong 
to do what she did, but she said "she must speak and 
satisfy her grudges.-" 

A victim of melancholia, pursued with the thought of 
suicide, arose in the night, knocked at his brother's 
door, and cried to him, " Come quick ; suicide is pursu- 
ing me, and soon I shall be unable to withstand it." 

An irresistible impulse to steal, set fire to houses, 
speak out in meeting, snatch a chair away when one is 
about to sit down in it, deny doing a favor when kindly 
asked, belong to this class of disorders. Such cases are 
frequently met with in schools. A pupil is suddenly 
seized with an irresistible impulse to do something out- 
landish or wicked. He cannot explain why, and the 
teacher is at utter loss to know what to do. The 
scholar, when asked, is as much nonplussed as the rest, 
and when earnestly pressed to give a reason can only 
say : "I cannot tell what made me do it. Something 
pushed me on ; I could not help it." 

Instances are mentioned of a young woman who chewed 



DISEASES OF THE WILL. 75 

up her gowns; of an art amateur who punched a hole 
through the canvas of a painting ; of a man who was 
haunted by the thought that he might commit to writ- 
ing that he had been guilty of some crime ; of a boy who 
collected and kept all the strings he could find, and of a 
man in Iowa who collected all the old scraps of iron he 
could get hold of. 

Some pupils are seized with an irresistible desire to 
get a great number of pencils or certain kinds of paper. 
They are laughed at for the habit, but it does no good. 
These instances show that it is necessary for teachers to 
be on the lookout for such cases in the school-room. 
When a child is suddenly, and without apparent cause, 
obstinate, refusing to do what he has been usually will- 
ing to do, or persisting in doing what he knows to be 
wrong, it may be suspected that his will is diseased. If 
this is the case, punishment will do no good. Other 
means must be used. The remedy is through the atten- 
tion. When the pupil loses the power of governing 
himself, he is continually liable to be governed by caprice 
and impulse. The methods of cultivating the attention 
have been spoken of in a former chapter. These must be 
carefully adapted to the wants of individual cases. In 
more instances than some are willing to admit, the 
teacher becomes a physician of the mind, and, perhaps, 
an adviser to parents concerning the healing of the 
body ; for bodily conditions have much to do with the 
states of the mind, especially the will, memory, and 
attention. 

Axioms and Directions. — 1. External causes affect the 
will. 



j6 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

2. Exciting the voluntary action of the will is the aim 
of the teacher. 

3. The cause of disorders of the will often may be 
found in bodily conditions. 

4. A careful distinction should be made between ioill, 
properly active, and will in diseased action, or wilful- 
ness. 

5. A thorough knowledge of motives is necessary in 
order properly to treat the will. 

6. The will must be governed by moral influences. 
An immoral character invariably produces a disordered 
will. Strong moral convictions produce strong will- 
power. 

7. Following from the foregoing comes the fact that 
a truth-loving person will be a truth-seeking person. 
To believe a doctrine with all the heart, mind, and soul 
will produce corresponding determinations as to life- 
actions. 

8. Since morality comes from a belief in the truth, 
or truth underlies morality, it follows that we must 
know the basis of morality before we can know the 
ultimate basis of all will-power. This is love. With- 
out sincere love to God and man there can be no true 
morality, no truth, and no intelligent will. 

Remarks. — It is often said that a person addicted to 
bad habits yields to temptation on account of a weak 
will. This is a wrong conclusion. In such persons the 
will is weak toward the right, but strong toward the 
wrong. A drunkard will have his dram. His will is 
overmastering. The right has little or no influence 
upon him. The difficulty with him is, his will is unbal- 



DISEASES OF THE WILL. J J 

anced or diseased. He has turned the whole course of 
his determinations in the wrong direction. 

Habits determine the will. Let a person con- 
tinue in a certain line of action persistently, and he 
will reach a point where he cannot will to do otherwise 
than he has been doing. One kind of willing will suffer 
a paralysis, but another kind will grow stronger. It is so 
with the eyes : when one is lost the other grows stronger 
than before. A habit of right willing will weaken the 
tendency of wrong willing until, by and by, it becomes 
almost, if not entirely, extinct. 



What, then, constitutes strength of will? It is that quality of the mind 
which is prompt to decide, and, having decided, cannot be moved from its 
purpose, but holds through evil report and good report; overcomes ob- 
stacles; shrinks from no difficulties; relies on its own judgment; does not 
yield to fashion,— and so presses to its mark always. Strength of will is 
the power to resist, to persist, to endure, to attack, to conquer obstacles, to 
snatch success from the jaws of death and despair. It is the most vital ele- 
ment in character. It is essential to excellence; for of him who has it not 
it must be said: "Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel." A man of 
weak will is at the mercy of the last opinion; is unable to make up his mind, 
or, having made it up, to keep to it. He is undecided, and cannot decide. 
He sees the right, and drifts towards the wrong. He determines on a course 
of conduct, and then quits on the first temptation. Weak as a breaking 
wave, a helpless idler, wax to take a stamp from anything stronger than 
himself, if he adopts a right course, it is only by accident; and if he is virtu- 
ous, it is only a piece of good luck. . . . 

Self-reliance, self-restraint, self control, self -direction, these constitute an 
educated will. If the will is weak, it must be taught self-reliance; if it is 
wilful, it must have restraint; if it is violent, it must acquire self-control; if 
it is without any true aim, it must be educated to self -direction. Freedom 
is self-direction. No one is really free who cannot guide himself according 
to his own deliberate judgment; a man who has no principles, therefore, 
cannot be free.— James Freeman Clarke. 



?8 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 



adapter XV. 
KINDS OF MEMORY. 

DISORDERS OF THE MEMORY. 

It frequently happens that what we know as well as 
we know anything, at once, from no known cause, is 
unable to be recalled. 

Instances are not wanting where one's own name is 
forgotten. A gentleman recently, calling at a post-office, 
said: " Please give me my letters." ' ' What name, sir?" 
brought no answer, until a letter addressed to himself 
was taken from his pocket and handed to the clerk. 

It is not uncommon for persons to meet well-known 
acquaintances and be unable to recall their names. The 
situation under such circumstances becomes exceedingly 
embarrassing, and is frequently taken as indicating a 
want of regard. This is not the case, for memory of 
dates and names is in no way connected with affection. 

A poor memory of dates is more common than of 
names. Ordinarily, people remember faces pretty well. 
No remark is more common than, "I remember you dis- 
tinctly, but I cannot recall where I have seen you." 
Memories of the following particulars differ very widely, 



KINDS OF MEMORY. fQ 

a. " Locality where we have been before. 
h. Points of the compass. Some are never " turned 
around ;" others are never certain. 

c. Names of acquaintances. 

d. Names of historical characters. 

e. Dates of family events. 

/. Dates of historical events. 

g. Words exactly as they were spoken. 

h. Narrations; some can never tell the same story 
alike twice in succession. 

i. Poetry; some easily remember poetry, but can 
never commit prose. 

These are a.few of the many specific kinds of memory 
that exist in varying degrees of strength in all persons. 

One Kind of Memory Often Wanting. — When this is the 
case, another kind is often very, strong. A young man 
of our acquaintance could remember with the utmost 
tenacity any number of dates and names with no exertion. 
Nothing of this nature was ever forgotten. He delighted 
in what, to many others, was distasteful and repulsive. 
But this same young man could not reason out the sim- 
plest proposition in geometry, nor could he commit the 
shortest one to memory. In most persons some kind of 
memory is strong. One can remember all the various 
kinds of odors with the utmost precision; another can 
arrange, with no error, all the shades of each of the 
primary colors; another can recall the appearance of 
a house, or room, or street, seen but once; another can 
reproduce, most correctly, strains of music. 

Each person should know on what points his 

MEMORY IS THE STRONGEST AND WEAKEST. Also, 



8o MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

teachers should know the peculiarities in the memories 
of each pupil under their care. It is worse than cruel 
to require a child to attempt to remember what he can- 
not, but this experiment is daily tried, simply because 
teachers do not know that one kind of memory is some- 
times wanting, or, at best, exceedingly weak. 

MENTAL DISEASES. 

1. The doiible life. To some people the memory of 
certain days is a blank. Nothing can be recalled. A 
woman described by Dr. Azam lived two distinct lives. 
In one she was serious, grave, reserved, and laborious. 
In the other she became gay, imaginative, vivacious, and 
coquettish. When she was in one condition she had no 
memory of what took place in the other condition. In- 
stances like this are extreme, but many like them are 
often seen among young people. At times a child will 
be bright and attentive; then for a time he will be dull 
and absent-minded. We think, "Is it possible this is 
the same child as last week?" Impatiently, the incon- 
siderate teacher says: "What is the matter with you, 
Mary? I taught you this last Monday, and to-day it 
seems as though you had never heard of it before." The 
only reply is a wondering stare. 

Children acting in this manner have a mental disease, 
known as amnesia, although in an undeveloped form. 
They are likely to have attacks of somnambulism. 

This disease is often called an evolution of two memo- 
ries independent of one another. Many people live this 
kind of double life, and it often commences to show 
itself in early childhood. 



KINDS OF MEMORY. 8 1 

2. Memory exaltations. This manifests itself in im- 
pressions of having been in a certain place, or seen cer- 
tain things, for which no cause can be assigned; also in 
at once distinctly remembering what has been for years 
forgotten. Several instances will be mentioned in the 
next chapter illustrating this kind of disease. 

3. The decay of memory. Do we ever forget? is an 
interesting question. In old age it is undeniable there 
is forgetfulness, but it can be traced to a want of use. 
In certain bodily states the memory suffers, and when 
certain portions of the brain are removed, a total loss of 
one kind of memory is effected. Children, when par- 
tially sick, often forget more than they learn. 

WHAT TEACHERS SHOULD DO. 

1. Observe symptoms. They must be mental doctors, 
and take frequent diagnoses of memory phenomena. Is 
a child absent-minded, having the habit of looking at the 
teacher, and yet thinking of something else? Break it 
up by counter-irritants. Put before the mind strong 
motives, tell cheerful stories; excite laughter; get the 
mind away from the dreamland, into present light. 
Never scold. One five minutes of fun is better medicine 
than an hour of the stern (( must." 

2. Look out carefully for morbid influences on the 
memory. Children should never be sentimental or love- 
sick. Hearty affection is grand; but dull, lifeless, mock- 
love is a disease. Some young people love to read sen- 
timental stories, and think them over, and talk about 
them. Remove such influences. A hearty, clear, open 



82 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

affection, tempered with an abundance of sunlight, good 
food, pure water — outside and in — clean rooms, and 
good sleep, will drive away a hundred cobwebs from 
sensitive brains and nerves, and wonderfully strengthen 
weak memories. 

3. Tax the memory to the utmost, but do not, under 
any consideration, let the children think that you are 
giving them tasks. When the complaint is heard, "0 
dear, I never can remember all this V it may be certain 
somebody has erred. It is probably the teacher. The 
memory must work, and work hard, if it is to gain 
strength, but it must work willingly and cheerfully. 
This doctrine is sound, and should be preached every- 
where. It is not work that kills, but unwilling, en- 
forced, uncongenial tasks. No beings on earth have 
more active memories than children. Let them exercise 
them to the utmost of their powers, but willingly, cheer- 
fully, and in the line of their natural desires. 



INCIDENTS OF DISORDERED MEMORIES. 

It is important for teachers to know the condition of 
mind in its diseased as well as in its healthy state. For 
the purpose of giving students a glimpse of what the 
memory may become, we present the following inci- 
dents : 

Mr. Von B , envoy to St. Petersburg, was about 

to make a visit, but could not tell the servant his name. 



KINDS OF MEMORY. 83 

Turning around to a gentleman who was with him, he 
said, with much earnestness, "Do tell me who I am!" 
The question excited laughter, but as he insisted on be- 
ing answered, he was told, upon which he finished his 
visit. It is frequently the case that business men for- 
get some part of the multiplication-table or how to spell 
a familiar word. No cause can be assigned, but the 
fact remains. Men make allowances for themselves 
when teachers often would make no allowances for their 
pupils. 

Many instances are mentioned in works on mental 
philosophy of the inability to speak the right words at 
the right time. A gentleman told a friend that "he 
had had his umbrella washed," the meaning of which 
was gradually discovered to be that he had had his hair 
cut. This man's health was good, but he finally died 
of apoplexy. 

In hospitals it is not uncommon to find patients de- 
prived of a part of their vocabulary. They cannot re- 
member the words scissors and window, but can say, 
"the things that cut," and "what you see through." 
They forget names of persons, but can designate them 
by their titles, profession, inventions they have made, or 
books written. In many serious cases of such loss of 
memory, the patient is able to play games that require 
skill and foresight with great success, showing that rea- 
soning and perception may be strong, while certain 
other parts of the mind are weak. In some cases a man 
knows very well what he wants to say, and can think 
the words but cannot utter them. An individual under 
these circumstances said, "I made every effort to reply, 



84 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOU NO TEACHERS. 

but it was impossible to utter .a word." Instances of 
this kind have led some authors to distinguish two ver- 
bal memories — the one by which we become conscious of 
the word, the second by which we are able to express it. 

A Wrong Conclusion. — It is wrong to suppose that 
because a child knows therefore he can express. The 
therefore does not follow. Every-day experience con- 
tradicts the statement that all that expression needs is 
knowledge. Speakers are constantly failing because 
they cannot command themselves. They become vexed 
continually, and often say to themselves, " If I could 
only express what I know and feel, if I could tell in 
public the things I know and can express to a few, I 
should be satisfied." The power of memory does not go 
hand in hand with the power of expression. This is a 
very important item for teachers to remember. 

If teachers will take the trouble to classify memory- 
failures, they will find that proper names are the most 
frequently forgotten, then names of concrete things, 
then substantives not formed from adjectives, and 
lastly adjectives and verbs which express qualities, states 
of being, and acts. It has been noticed that many 
idiots have memory only of adjectives. 

Mental images of persons and things, without their 
names, are easily remembered; abstract concepts can 
only be formed by the aid of words that give them sta- 
ble form. This is the reason why verbs, adjectives, pro- 
nouns, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions are more 
-easily fixed in the mind than substantives. 

Gestures and motions are longest remembered. One 
incident is mentioned of a patient who could not re- 



KINDS OF MEM OR V. 85 



member motions. His case was severe. The physician 
said: "I held my hands before me, and moved my fin- 
gers, as if I were playing^ the clarinet, and requested 
the patient to imitate me. He did so with perfect pre- 
cision. A few minutes later I asked him to go through 
the same movements. He reflected for a time, but was 
entirely unable to recall them." This was an extreme 
case of disease, probably incurable. When signs of re- 
covery begin, they return in inverse order to that in 
which they disappear. 

Instances in great numbers show that memory is 
tenacious. What is committed to it is retained, even 
though it cannot for years be recalled. It is through 
some imperfection in the mind that we cannot at once 
recall perfectly all we have seen, heard, or read. Stored 
away in one of the countless chambers of the mind the 
memories are there, only waiting for a favorable oppor- 
tunity to spring into life and activity. 



A FEW INCIDENTS. 

" A lady in the last stage of a chronic disease was carried from 
London to a lodging in the country; there her infant daughter 
was taken to visit her, and after a short interview carried back to 
town. The lady died a few days after, and the daughter grew up 
without any recollection of her mother till she was of mature age. 
At this time she happened to be taken into the room in which her 
mother died, without knowing it to have been so; she started on 
entering it, and, when a friend who was along with her asked the 
cause of her agitation, she replied, ' I have a distinct impression of 
having been in this room before, and that a lady who lay in that 
corner, and seemed very ill, leaned over me and wept.' " 



S6 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

" A clergyman endowed with a decidedly artistic temperament 
(a fact worth noting) went with a party of friends to a castle in 
Sussex, which he did not remember ever to have previously visited. 
As he approached the gateway he became conscious of a very vivid 
impression of having seen it before; and he 'seemed to himself 
to see ' not only the gateway itself but donkeys beneath the arch 
and people on the top of it. His conviction that he must have 
visited the castle on some former occasion made him inquire from 
his mother if she could throw any light on the matter. She at 
once informed him that, being in that part of the country when he 
was about eighteen months old, she had gone over with a large 
party, and taken him in the pannier of a donkey; that the elders 
of the party, having brought lunch with them, had eaten it on the 
roof of the gateway, where they would have been seen from be- 
low, while he had been left on the ground with the attendants and 
donkeys." 

" ' A case has been related to me,' says Abercrombie, ' of a boy 
who at the age of four received a fracture of the skull, for whieh 
he underwent the operation of trepanning. He was at the time in a 
state of perfect stupor, and after his recovery retained no recollec- 
tion either of the accident or of the operation. At the age of fif- 
teen, during the delirium of a fever, he gave his mother a correct 
description of the operation, and the persons who were present at 
it, with their dress and other minute particulars. He had never 
alluded to it before, and no means were known by which he could 
have acquired a knowledge of the circumstances which he men- 
tioned.' " 

The complete recovery of a forgotten language merits 
attention. The case reported by Coleridge is well 
known, and there are many others of the same kind to 
be found in the works of Abercrombie, Hamilton, and 
Carpenter. The anaesthetic sleep induced by chloro- 
form or ether sometimes produces the same effects as 
does febrile excitation. 



KINDS OF MEMORY. 87 

" An old forester had lived in his boyhood on the frontier of 
Poland, where he had never spoken anything but the Polish 
tongue. Afterward he lived in the German districts, and his chil- 
dren assert that for thirty or forty years he neither heard nor pro 
nounced a single Polish word. During an attack of anaesthesia, 
which lasted nearly two hours, he spoke, prayed, and sang, using 
only the Polish language." 



A skilled and methodical recollection may be illustrated from Mark An- 
tony's oration over the dead body of Caesar, in which every circumstance 
calculated to excite the sympathy of his hearers is artfully recalled: 

" You all do know this mantle: I remember 
The first time ever Csesar put it on ; 
'Twas on a summer's evening in his tent; 
That day he overcame the Nervii: — 
Look! in this place ran Cassius' dagger through: 
See, what a rent the envious Casca made: 
Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd; 
And,, as he pluck'd his cursed steel away, 
Mark how the blood of Csesar follow'd it; 
As rushing out of doors, to be resolv'd 
If Brutus so unkindly knock'd, or no; 
For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel: 
Judge, O ye gods, how dearly Caesar lov'd him ! 
This was the most unkindest cut of all : 
For when the noble C8esar saw him stab, 
Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms, 
Quite vanquish'd him: then burst his mighty heart: 
And, in his mantle muffling up his face, 
Even at the base of Pompey's statue. 
Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell." 

A similar skilful selection of circumstances characterizes every good de- 
scription of familiar scenes. The " Cotter's Saturday Night," by Burns, and 
the ■* Elegy in a Village Churchyard," by Gray, both largely composed from 
recollections, contain excellent illustrations.— Edward John Hamilton. 



88 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 



CijajjUr XIT3L 
THE SENSIBILITIES. 

An Outline for Study. 

( immediate, 
1. The sensibilities are •< retrospective, 

( prospective. — Brown. 

J animal, 
rational, 
spiritual. — Hickok. 

C simple emotions, 
3. The sensibilities are ■< affections, 

( desires. — Haven. 

j appetites or 
( animal propensities, 
emotions or affections, 
voluntary activities. 

— Mahan. 
Emotions. 

5. All emotions are pleasant or unpleasant. 

6. When the element of hope in an emotion becomes 
extinct, agony is induced. 

7. When any good once hoped for has been lost, the 
emotion of grief is created. 

8. When moral excellencies once possessed are lost by 
our own actions, the self -reprobation becomes remorse. 



4. The sensibilities are 



THE SENSIBILITIES. 89 

" What exile from himself can flee 

To zones, though more and more remote ? 
Still, still pursues, where'er I be, 
The blight of life, the demon, thought. 

Through many a clime 'tis mine to go, 

With many a retrospection curst ; 
And all my solace is to know, 

Whate'er betides, I've known the worst. 

What is that worst ? nay, do not ask ; — 

In pity from the search forbear. 
Smile on — nor venture to unmask 

Man's heart, and view the hell that's there." 

—Byron. 

9. Desires are to sensations and emotions what effects 
are to causes. 

10. Some emotions depend upon original principles 
in our nature and are permanent, as — domestic affec- 
tions, love of right and of duty, hatred of wrong, etc. 

11. Some emotions come to full maturity instantly, 
as fear, terror, suspense, wonder. They disappear as 
quickly as they rose. 

1%. Certain emotions come to maturity slowly and 
gradually decay, as beauty and sublimity. 

13. Some emotions produce similar feelings in other 
minds. These are emotions of sympathy, 

14. There is but a step between sympathy and affec- 
tion or love. True sympathy will always, if properly 
cultivated, lead to love. It is at the basis of — 

of society, of benefactors, 

of kindred, of country, 

Love i of the sexes, of heroes, 

of friends, of species, 

of home, of God. 



90 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

15. The mind is always pleased with emotions of fit- 
ness, propriety, congruity, and pained with emotions of 
an opposite nature. 

Kemark (1). The basis of all our real love of God is 
sympathy. " We love Him because He first loved us." 
We love Him for the same reason our pupils love us, 
and we love them. We desire to imitate what we see is 
worthy of imitation. Laboring for others shows us 
these good qualities, and thus we gain a sympathy for 
them. 

Kemark (2). The above suggestions are full of most 
valuable suggestions to all teachers. It is only by study- 
ing the nature of our desires, sympathies, moral charac- 
ter, and affections we can learn how to mould others' 
characters and do them good. The whole subject here 
outlined is full of material for thought. 

Remark (3). You must study this subject in the light 
of yourselves. Reading books will not help you very 
much. Look into your own natures. Study yourselves. 
If at first you cannot think satisfactorily, try again in 
another way. Ask, " How do I feel, think, sympathize, 
love ?" All human beings are fundamentally the same. 
The probability is, were you in the place of your pupils 
you would do as they do ; your emotions would be their 
emotions. 

Remark (4). The emotions move the intellectual 
powers and will, so we have outlined the Sensibilities 
and Feelings. 

Remark (5). Do not be discouraged if introspection 
is difficult and slow. Keep at it. You will succeed. 



RELATION OF SENSIBILITIES TO THE WILL. Q I 



adapter XVM. 

RELATION OF THE SENSIBILITIES TO THE WILL. 



CLASSIFICATION". 

J Emotion, 
Desire, and 
Obligation. 
( Appetites, 
Our desires are, •< Propensities, and 

( Affections. 
r Cheerfulness, Wonder, 



Our emotions are, 
among many oth- 
ers, 



Disgust, 
Among our appetites j Hunger, 
are ( Thirst. 

i Curiosity, 
Sociability, 
Ambition. 



Joy, Melancholy, 

Sorrow, Beauty, 

Surprise, Grandeur, 

Astonishment, Sublimity, 
Approval, Ludicrousness, 



Disapproval. 



Our affections are 
both 



( Anger, 
Malevolent, as •< Hate, 

( Revenge. 

I Love, 
Benevolent, as ■< Benevolence, 

( Mercy. 



92 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

This outline, although very comprehensive, is only a 
suggestion. An entire list would be much longer; for 
example, our obligations are here not subdivided, and 
the number of our propensities might be increased. 

But how do these affect the will ? All intellectual 
acts are clearly connected with the sensibilities, but the 
intellect cannot reach the will except through the emo- 
tions. Let the students of the mind carefully examine 
this statement. There is a world of instruction in it 
for the guidance of teachers. Is it true ? We believe it 
is. But one more truth must be noticed. It is this : 

The emotions are not in direct contact with the will. 
One may be much moved, as by the sight of a beautiful 
picture, a dying person, great joy, or laughter, and yet 
have no exercise of the will. In fact, one may be over- 
whelmed with emotion and have no desire. 

Emotions are followed by feelings of desire and often 
by obligation. Our desires are in proximity to the will. 
Notice carefully these statements. 

The intellect is moved by emotions, and these are fol- 
lowed by desires, which are in contact with feelings of 
obligation. 

We may approach the will in other directions, but this 
is the most direct way. 

Can a child be made to desire to study, or obey the 
rule of right, or perform a duty without emotions ? Is 
it true that a pupil may be much moved and yet have 
no will to go to work? Do joy, sorrow, and cheerful- 
ness lead to desire? Is it necessary that desire should 
be excited in the mind before the will be exercised? Let 
the students of the mind answer these questions in the 



RELATION OF SENSIBILITIES TO THE WILL. 93 

light of their own personal experiences and the observa- 
tion of others. The subject is full of suggestiveness. 

A PEW QUESTIONS IN MIND-STUDY ANSWERED. 

Note. — These questions were submitted to an intelligent teacher, and re- 
ceived the following answers. They are presented here not because they 
are as accurately expressed as they might have been, but for the purpose 
of showing how an honest teacher can examine his own mental processes. 

I. Write the five things you like best to think about. 

(1) Mind and its Development. 

(2) Language and its Growth. 

(3) Natural Sciences, and the Method of Teaching 

the same. 

(4) The Political Science— Civil Government and 

Political Economy. 

(5) Moral Science — Divine Government and The- 

ology. 

II. Write five characteristics of your mental operations. 

(1) I do not remember easily. 

(2) I can't reason out mathematical problems 

easily. 

(3) I can originate new ideas, but am slow to ma- 

ture my thoughts and put them into execution, 

(4) I indulge too much in air-castle building. 

(5) Am not systematic in my investigations. 

III. How many distinct kinds of mental faculties can 
you recognize? 

(1) Sensation. (2) Perception. (3) Conception. 
(4) Imagination. (5) Memory. (6) Ab- 
straction. (7) Association and Discrimina- 
tion. (8) Reflection. (9) Judgment. (10) 
Beaspn. (11) Concentration, (12) Fancy. 



94 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

IV. Which, of these, in your case, seems to be most 
fully developed? , 

(1) Perception — Power of Seeing. 

V. Under what mental conditions can you think 
easily? 

(1) Under mental excitement. (2) Under pres- 
sure. (3) Under opposition. 
"VI. Is your mind improving? Give five reasons why 
you think it is or is not. 

(1) I think it is. I hope so, at least, (a) I have 
a greater thirst to know, (b) A stronger de- 
sire to do. (c) I can accomplish more mental 
work in a given amount of time with less 
mental effort, (d) Things that my mental 
nature once loathed it now loves. Once 
poetry was loathsome, now it is lovely; and so 
with other forms of art. (e) Narrowness is 
fading out — broadness and liberality are 
breathing in. 
VII. Name five ways in which your mental activity is 
promoted. 

(1) By teaching and observing mental phenomena. 

(2) By studying the art of teaching with its prin- 

ciples. 

(3) By mingling with my 

fellow teachers. 

(4) By mingling with my 

pupils. 

(5) By telling publicly what I have thought out 

privately. 



Mind sharpeneth 
mind." 



RELATION OF SENSIBILITIES TO THE WILL. 95 

VIII. How long can you think of one thing to the 
exclusion of all others? 

(1) I can't think very long on one subject. 

IX. State the connection, in your experience, between 
abstraction, association, and imagination. 

(1) Association is the grouping of ideas. 

(2) Abstraction is the detaching of an idea from a 

group. 

(3) Imagination is the weaving of these abstractions 

into a whole. 
What follows illustrates my experience of the connec- 
tion or relation of the above faculties : 

(1) The mind enters the botanical garden of 

thought. 

(2) Association groups into distinct clusters the 

roses, the lilies, and the pansies. 

(3) Abstraction plucks an individual flower from 

each separate group. 

(4) Imagination weaves *these individual flowers 

into a new and distinct flower. 

X. Is it possible to talk about anything of which you 
are not thinking ? 

I think not. We think at small intervals on the 
subject we seem not to think of. 



$6 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 



adapter XVXXX. 

THE TRAINING OF THE SENSIBILITIES. 

The sensibilities stand in a commanding relation to 
both the will and the thinking powers. To ignore their 
importance is to ignore that which has given the best 
teachers of the world their greatest success. An iceberg 
has no power to mould child-nature ; neither has a blaz- 
ing pine-knot, nor a stubborn mule. A successful teach- 
er must combine clearness and strength, with warmth, 
light, and unyielding determination. Tears alone have 
no power. They may give evidence of remarkable weak- 
ness. A weeping ignoramus will be kicked out of doors 
by pupils who have not a*particle of sympathy with his 
misfortunes. They will laugh him to scorn, for weak- 
ness as well as ignorant stubbornness always provokes 
merriment. 

A PEBFECT TEACHEB. 

This mythical personage has equally developed all 
three qualities, Will, Feeling, Knowledge. Here we 
represent him: 



Will. 


Feelings. 


Intellect. 



No. 1. 

He cannot be found except in imagination. Some 



THE TRAINWG OP THE SENSIBILITIES. g? 

teachers,, especially those inexperienced, would be repre- 
sented like this: 



No. 2. 



Feelings. 



it 

<D 



Will. 


Intellect. 


II 

ft -9 



Great feeling; little intellect and will. Other teachers, 
especially the old "crammers" and " grinds," are as 
follows: 



No. 3. 



Great will and knowledge ; almost no feeling. With 
such teachers the " know something" and the " must" 
are grand educational forces. They would give more 
for an excellent " recitation" than for all the sentiment 
in the United States. No. 2 will laugh and cry in the 
same breath; the will is weak and the examination-pa- 
pers poor. 

Self-Examination. — Draw your own diagram carefully . 
and honestly. It will do you good. Make it six inches 
long, and subdivide it into its proportional parts. The 
suggestion is an excellent one, and needs no further ex- 
planation. 

Now we come to the real object of this article — the 
methods of training the sensibilities so that they may 
work in harmony with all the other parts of the mind. 

In Some Cases They Must be Repressed. — Some young 
children develop in early life great emotional power. 
They laugh or cry, are very cheerful or despondent, or 



98 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

have an inordinate curiosity and sociability. They can- 
not say no, have no will of their own, and are not con- 
tent unless they are hanging on the neck of the teacher, 
and assured a hundred times that they are objects of af- 
fection. It is not necessary to cause such dear little 
creatures an instant of pain. Their intellects must be 
made to grow, and their wills brought into active exer- 
cise. They must be put into situations where they are 
obliged to assert themselves. This can be done. by means 
of motives. The emotional force must be brought to 
bear upon the motive forces. A child says: "I love 
you so much, my dear teacher!" 

" Well, my child; will you do something for me that 
will make me feel very happy ?" 

"Anything in the world." 

"Well, then, if you do this work in arithmetic to- 
night, I shall be made very happy when I see it to-mor- 
row." 

To-morrow comes, and the work has been poorly done. 
The teacher says: "The work is not well done, and I 
feel bad about it." 

The child bursts out into a passion of tears. The 
next day greater effort is put forth, and the teacher is 
made happier; by and by the work is excellently done, 
and the teacher is rejoiced. But by this time the intel- 
lect begins to assert itself, and the emotional nature is 
less demonstrative. 

In like manner the will can be reached through mo- 
tives of duty — right and wrong. The object of the 
teacher is «fco overpower the feelings when they are in 
excess by developing the will and intellect through mo- 



THE TRAINING OF THE SENSIBILITIES. 99 

tives skilfully applied. In every instance as soon as the 
will and intellect begin to grow the emotions will be 
found to work in harmony with them. This is the edu- 
cation of the feelings. 

In Some Cases They Must be Cultivated. — This can be 
done in a hundred different ways. Cheerfulness, joy, 
wonder, beauty, curiosity, disappointment, or disapproval 
will wake up the feelings of the most unfeeling child. 
An entire book could easily be written on this subject. 
Is a boy wilful, stubborn, and immovable? Does he de- 
light in causing other children to cry? Is he unmoved 
by the emotions and desires of his teacher? Get him 
to laugh at something worth laughing at. Show him by 
stories the meanness of a low action. Make it appear as 
mean as possible. Get him to do you a favor — to help 
you or some one else. Excite feelings of obligation. 
Go out of your way to help him. It may be necessary 
to punish him; if so, let it be done, and let him under- 
stand the full enormity of his actions, and with a feeling 
heart punish him thoroughly. If it must be done, let 
it be well done. 

AN ANECDOTE OP DANIEL WEBSTER. 

The best men have had the deepest feelings. In his mature days, 
no one was held in higher esteem by the people of this country 
than Daniel Webster. An incident in his early life forcibly illus- 
trates the true composition of his nature, and shows us how deep 
his sensibilities were. His father was poor, yet he resolved to send 
him to college— a dream he had hardly dared to cherish. He says '. 

"I remember the very hill we were ascending through deep 
snow, in a New England sleigh, when my father made known 
this purpose to me. I could not speak. How could he, I thought, 



100 MIND-STUD/ES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

with so large a family, and in such narrow circumstances, think 
of incurring so great an expense for me? A warm glow ran all 
over me, and I laid my head on my father's shoulder and wept." 

This little incident shows how deep were his sensibilities. His 
strength of intellect and will are universally recognized. 



Closely allied to the emotions of joy and sorrow awakened by our own 
personal experience of good and of evil is the sympathy we feel with the 
joys and sorrows of others in similar circumstances. Joy is contagious. So, 
also, is grief. We cannot behold the emotions of others without in some 
degree experiencing a corresponding emotion. Nor is it necessary to be 
eye-witnesses of that happiness or sorrow. The simple description of any 
scene of happiness or of misery affects the heart, and touches the chords of 
sympathetic emotion. We picture the scene to ourselves, we fancy our- 
selves the spectators or, it maybe, the actors and the sufferers; we imagine 
what would be our own emotions in such a case, and in proportion to the 
liveliness of our power of conception, and also of our power of feeling, will 
be our sympathy with the real scene and the real sufferers. 

The sympathy thus awakened, whether with the joy or the sorrow of 
others, is a simple emotion, distinct in its nature from both the affections 
and the desires; and it is, moreover, instinctive rather than rational— a mat- 
ter of impulse, a principle implanted in our nature, and springing into exer- 
cise, as by instinct, whenever the occasion presents itself, rather than the 
result of reason and reflection. It is a susceptibility which we possess, to 
some extent at least, in common with the brutes, who are by no means in- 
sensible to the distresses or to the happiness of their fellows. It is a sus- 
ceptibility which manifests itself in early life, before habits of reflection 
are formed, and under circumstances which preclude the supposition that it 
may be the result of education, or in any manner an acquired and not an 
original and implanted principle. So far from being the result of reflection, 
reason and reflection are often needed to check the emotion, and keep it 
within due bounds. There are times when sympathy, for example, with the 
distresses of others would stand in the way of efficient and necessary ac- 
tion, and when it is needful to summon all the resources of reason to our 
aid in the stern and resolute performance of a duty which brings us into 
conflict with this instinctive principle of our nature. The judge is not at 
liberty to regard the tears of the heart-broken wife or child when he rises 
to pronounce the stern sentence of violated law upon the wretched criminal. 

The kind-hearted surgeon must for the time be deaf to the outcries of his 
patient, and insensible to his sufferings, or his ministrations are at an end.— 
Joseph Haven. 



RELATION OP SENSIBILITIES TO MORALITY. 101 



adapter XXX- 

RELATION OF THE SENSIBILITIES TO MO- 
RALITY. 

It is the opinion of many eminent thinkers that moral 
consciousness is wholly dependent upon sympathy ; how- 
ever this may be, it is certain that a highly-developed 
sympathy is an indispensable condition to its full unfold- 
ing. Moral feelings require that we should feel for 
others. In other words, we must enter into their joys 
and sorrows. The early Christians were in entire sym- 
pathy among themselves. They lived together, they 
belonged together ; they were all as brothers and sisters, 
fathers and children. A man no more thought of say- 
ing,* " This is my place, this is my right, " than the 
hand thinks of saying to the foot, " This blood belongs 
to me, not to you," or of saying to the other hand, " I 
have a right to do this, you have .not." This was the 
highest condition human society has ever yet attained. 
If it had lasted, heaven would have already come on the 
earth. 

The Basis of True Morality is affection. Self is for- 
gotten in serving others. Christ expressed this truth 

* James Freeman Clarke, in " Self-Culture." 



102 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

when he said, " For whosoever shall do the will of G-od, 
the same is my brother, and sister, and mother/' Bat 
it must be noticed that morality does not consist in 
simply doing right, but in doing right through proper 
motives, A moral action cannot be done through jeal- 
ousy, or enyy, or self -gratification. These motives may 
lead one to give money to the poor or feed the hungry. 
This is right, but since the motives are wrong, the 
actions are not moral actions. We may outwardly do 
right and yet have poor moral characters. Let us take 
an illustration. A man may be polite, helpful, and 
generous. He may even get an excellent character for 
goodness, but at heart have no sympathy with his fellow 
men. His motives may be increasing his trade, estab- 
lishing a professional character, or obtaining an office. 
He is far different from the man who has genuine sym- 
pathy with others and labors for their good, forgetful of 
self-interest, with no thought of trade, profession, or 
office. Such a man was John Howard, and such per- 
sons are thousands who are teaching and working all 
over the world. "It is only when we lose thought of 
ourselves that we find our own higher self." It is not 
enough to rejoice because we have our desire, we must 
rejoice because others are happy. Two words stand over 
against each other : 

SELFISHNESS-SYMPATHY. 

They are foundation-stones ; one, of all that is mean 
and repulsive ; the other, of all that is high and attrac- 
tive. 

There is an expression, "using one's friends," that 



RELATION OF SENSIBILITIES TO MORALITY. I03 

implies a great deal that is bad,* for it is the confession 
of personal desire as the end of social attachment. 
Fashionable life is heartless, because under the appear- 
ance of affection there is generally nothing but heartless- 
ness. The polished words of conventionalism are only 
the husks of sympathy; the heart is gone. In corrupt 
society, sensuality and selfishness have usurped the place 
of the affections. 

A distinction must here be made between natural and 
moral affections. Our natural affections we share with 
the lower animals. They have no moral character, "are 
not morally good, and do not become so by being brought 
under moral control" (Hopkins). It constitutes no 
element of moral character for a mother to love her 
child; it would be immoral if she did not. The same 
may be said of natural endowments; some are amiable, 
others are the reverse. " It is no fault of theirs; one is 
the rose, and the other the nettle; one is the smooth, the 
other the rough-barked tree, and nature has made the 
difference." 

" It is not uncommon to find the richest gifts of nat- 
ural affections and intellect associated with the deepest 
moral corruptions. We have examples of this in Aaron 
Burr, Byron, Napoleon, and Poe. It is the smooth- 
barked hickory that bears bitter nuts. Good nuts come 
from the shag-bark hickory, beautiful flowers grow on the 
prickly and angular cactus." 

lc A man who has given himself up to selfishness when 
he pays visits to his tenants, on the day the rents be- 

*See Dr. Hopkins' Lowell Lectures on "Moral Science." 



104 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

come due, can see nothing and hear nothing but money. 
Selfishness has closed the avenues to his soul." He may 
be amiable and, in general, kind, but all that he does is 
tinged by his moral nature. He cannot see beyond his 
own self-interest. 

Still we are responsible for our own moral characters 
and, to a great extent, for those influenced by us, for 
we are so made that we can turn our motives and desires 
into whatever channel we wish them to run. 



We would remark, here, upon one discouragement which frequently at- 
tends the efforts of those who are so situated as to render it especially their 
duty to impart instruction to the young. We refer to the fact that it is 
sometimes, and but too frequently, the case that they see but little im- 
mediate good results from their labors. They can see distinctly the advance- 
ment of their pupils in that knowledge .which is appropriate to the intellect, 
but are less able to measure their progress in what pertains to the moral 
culture Indeed, they too often believe that their instruction is seed sown 
upon stony ground, which is not only unproductive at present, but is abso- 
lutely and forever lost. 

This is a great mistake. The truth is that nothing is lost. The moral and 
religious instruction which is communicated to the youthful memory is 
deposited in the keeping of a power which may sometimes slumber but can 
never die. It may long be unproductive; it may remain for years without 
giving signs of vivification and of an operative influence; and yet it may be 
only waiting for some more favorable and important moment, when it shall 
come forth suddenly and prominently to view. No one, therefore, ought to 
be discouraged in the discharge of his duty. In nothing is the scriptural 
declaration more likely to be fulfilled in its richest import: " Cast thy bread 
upon the waters, and thou shalt find it after many days." 

Multitudes of illustrations might be introduced to confirm the views of this 
section. How natural is the following incident ! And how agreeable, there- 
fore, to sound philosophy! "When I was a little child," said a religious 
man, " my mother used to bid me kneel beside her, and place her hand upon 
my head while she prayed. Ere I was old enough to know her worth, she 
died, and I was left to my own guidance. Like others, I was inclined to evil 
passions, but often felt myself checked, and as it were drawn back by the 
soft hand upen my head. When I was a young man I travelled in foreign 
lands, and was exposed to many temptations; but when I would have 
yielded, that same hand was upon my head, and I was saved. I seemed to 
feel its pressure as in the days of my happy infancy, and sometimes there 
came with it a voice in my heart, a voice that must be obeyed: " Oh, do not 
this wickedness, my son, nor sin against thy God."— Thomas C. Upham. 



THE IMAGINATION. 105 



adapter XX. 

THE IMAGINATION. 

DUKING THE SECOND STAGE IN CHILD-LIFE. 

When the mind commences to assert its own character, 
it begins to be independent. Let us consider one faculty 
as it now appears. 

1. Imagination. — This faculty implies the possession 
of knowledge — something lias been received and retained. 
It is now changed into other forms ; by a purely mental 
act it is rearranged. Suppose a child had seen a certain 
arrangement, as : 

A book on the table. 

A chair at A girl standing 

its left. at the right. 

A dog lying under the table. 

Imagination re-arranges these in the mind, and the 
child says: I see — 

A dog lying on the table. 

A girl standing A chair at 

at the left. the right, 

A book under the table. 



106 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

"Without the power of imagination these new group- 
ings could not be thought of. 

Imagination is a rearrangement of images in the mind. 

On what the Vividness of Imagination Depends. — 
The vividness of imagination depends, first, upon the 
distinctness and clearness of the sense-impressions, and, 
second, upon the permanence of those impressions. We 
have a distinct image of a person's face when we have a 
clear image of its several parts in the mind. If we only 
remember the nose distinctly, the picture of the whole 
face will be indistinct. 

In this stage of the child's mental growth the distinct- 
ness of the impressions must be tested by appeal to the 
imagination. If it be found that this faculty is im- 
mature, the cause can at qnce be known — the sense- 
impressions on the mind have teen indistinct. 

A Few Experiments. — Children will delight in exer- 
cising this faculty if properly educated. Try this experi- 
ment with pupils about seven years of age. Say to a 
group of three or four, quietly, slowly, and distinctly : 

" Shut your eyes, and I will tell you what I see. I 
am in a large room. In the middle of this room is a 
long table ; around this table are chairs. At the further 
end of this room are two long, large windows ; over the 
windows hang beautiful red curtains. There is a plat- 
form at this end of the room ; it is carpeted ; on this 
platform is a large arm-chair ; at the right of the chair 
is a small, round marble stand. All around the sides of 
the room are arm-chairs. There is a door in the end of 
the room opposite the windows. No one is in the room. 
Keep still. Hark! The door opens. An old man 



THE IMAGINATION. loy 

comes in. He walks slowly. He has white hair, and 
carries a cane. He goes to the chair on the platform 
and sits down and looks around ; he is waiting for some- 
body. Let us see who it is. Yes, there he comes ; he 
is a little boy. He is dressed in a velvet frock, has long 
flaxen hair that hangs in ringlets on his shoulders, clear 
white skin, and beautiful blue eyes. He runs up to the 
old man, and, throwing his arms around his neck, says : 
'How glad I am to see you, grandpa I'" etc., etc. 

This imaginary picture must be produced by giving 
each separate part of it distinctly and clearly. By a 
proper regrouping of what children have seen before, the 
greatest interest can be excited, and the greatest benefit 
secured. It is now when the imagination can be made 
the means of fixing much valuable knowledge. Suppose 
the mental picture, the outlines of which we have just 
given, should be completed, and then told by the pupils, 
and afterwards written in full; an excellent language 
lesson would be the result — better than a thousand 
grammars and more useful and interesting than ten 
thousand rules of syntax. 

Suppose a historical mental picture is given — true in 
every particular as to its outlines, but filled with numer- 
ous imaginary details — in other words, suppose the dry 
bones of history were clothed with flesh, and made to 
stand before the pupils as living pictures, would they 
not be remembered ? Children delight in pictures at 
this stage of their mental growth, and they must be led 
to take in knowledge through them — not only printed 
pictures in books, but mental pictures from the teacher's 
own lips. There ought to be a calling, "Do tell us 



108 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

another history story," from ten thousand voices every 
day. They never would — they never could — forget 
them if properly told. 

Take geography for another illustration. Suppose 
the teacher says : " Shut your eyes and we will go to 
London. I am up in the air and see a great city. A 
large river seems to divide it into two parts. The 
larger part is on its north. It is crossed by many 
bridges. I see a large building with a high dome. It 
is St. Paul's Cathedral/' etc. Our space permits us to 
indicate only a glimpse of what such a geography lesson 
might teach ; in other words, might lead the child cor- 
rectly to imagine. No words can tell the wonderful 
interest that might be thrown around such exercises, if 
only the teacher could be possessed of the sufficient 
power to present them. 

History and geography must be taught to young 
pupils principally by means of the imagination. Hitherto 
its power has not been recognized. Teachers, think 
of these things. What we say is the result of years of 
work, and for the first part— -failure in reaching young 
minds. We tried to make the scholars "learn their 
lessons," and we succeeded ; but they learned nothing 
else. They repeated, memorized, and recited. Thank 
God, light has come to our darkened understanding, and 
we see some things more clearly than ever before. The 
power of good imagination lessons in awakening thought 
and securing investigation and interest is now an article 
in our educational creed. That it may be in yours, is 
the object of this chapter. 



the imagination: 109 



THE CULTURE OP THE IMAGINATION IN THE PHI- 
MARY CLASSES. 

Introductory. — All the exercises of the school are 
necessarily connected with training in expression. The 
child must learn to talk and write. Much has been 
said on this point, and much more needs to be said be- 
fore the majority of teachers will appreciate the great 
importance of teaching pupils to express themselves 
correctly and easily. Especially in the culture of the 
imagination is this of the greatest importance. 

Personating. — This exercise consists in leading chil- 
dren to assume fictitious characters. For example, each 
member of a class may take a different occupation. One 
may be a farmer, another a merchant, another a con- 
ductor on a railroad, another a teacher, etc. 

After a few minutes of silent thought, during which 
time the pupils could place their heads on their desks, 
they are permitted to tell what they have been imagin- 
ing- 

One would say: "I am a farmer, ploughing the 
ground with two horses and a plough. My horses don't 
like to pull. I have to make them go faster. When 
the ground is ready, I shall plant corn." 

Another would say : "lama grocer. In my store 
I have tea, sugar, coffee, dried apples and peaches, 
canned plums and pears, dried fish, and flour. I sell for 
cash." 

Another might say: "I am a railroad engineer. My 
engine is large. When I pull the handle, the steam 



IIO MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

goes puff, puff, and the wheels "go round. I whistle, 
and scare the cattle off the track. " 

Another might say : "I am a teacher. I train the 
pupils to read and write. They go to the board and draw 
lines, and make figures, and write words/' 

This, of necessity, is only a hint. The manner of car- 
rying it out will be much varied by the earnest teacher. 
For example, pupils can imagine they are in different 
localities, and can be influenced to tell what they see. 
One says: "I am standing by the banks of a river. I 
see little fishes swimming about in the shallow water. 
A board is floating down-stream. On the board is a 
frog. 0, he jumps off as soon as he sees me. I guess he 
was afraid I would stone him." 

Another says : " I am in the woods. The trees are 
very high. The brush on the ground is thick. I see a 
rabbit ! How fast he jumps \" 

Another says: " I am watching a big fire. Flame and 
smoke are coming out of the windows. The engine is 
throwing a stream of water right into the hot fire. It 
makes* a great deal of noise." 

By skilfully conducting such exercises as these, the 
greatest enthusiasm can be created and much real disci- 
pline obtained. 

What Studies Train the Imagination. — Geography, 
properly taught, is the best. There is no mental 
breadth obtained by learning the names of places, or 
the facts of distances, nor is there any geography in 
them, unless facts bring pictures into the mind. Geog- 
raphy is not a description of the earth's surface: it is a 
mental conception of a part or all of it. What we can 



THE IMAGINATION. Ill 

see by^ the aid of imagination is geography — all else is 
words. There is a general or accommodative sense in 
which all that is said concerning the earth is classed 
under the head of geography, but this is not the sense 
in which the word is used in primary instruction. 

History is the twin sister of geography ; in fact it 
would be impossible to study history without its aid. 
True history consists of pictures in the mind, for his- 
tory is but a series of pictures. We see Caesar crossing 
the Rubicon, the battles of Marathon and Thermopylae, 
Waterloo, Yorktown, Gettysburg, and Bull Run, and it 
is not until we get a mental photograph of these scenes 
that we have a history of them. 

There is little discipline of the imagination in spelling, 
arithmetic, or elocutionary reading, but literature is 
full of imaginative culture. Poetry, stories, and novels 
appeal directly to this faculty for all their best effects. 
" Robinson Crusoe" and "The Arabian Nights " have 
done more than all other books combined to cultivate 
the imaginative faculty in children. Hans Christian 
Andersen's works have had a wonderful influence. An 
entire chapter could profitably be filled with a catalogue 
of books adapted to cultivate a healthy imagination in 
children. Tor older pupils, nothing is better than the 
historical novels of Sir Walter Scott; Bulwer-Lytton's 
"Rienzi," "The Last Days of Pompeii;" Prescott's 
"Mexico" and "Peru," and most of what Washington 
Irving and Eenimore Cooper have written. 

Two poetical examples will serve to illustrate how 
much material, both suggestive and beautiful, is at 
hand for use whenever wanted : 



112 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

" Every wave, with dimpled cheek, 
That leaped upon the air, 
Had caught a star in its embrace, 
And held it trembling there !" 

" I have heard the laughing wind behind, 
When playing with my hair — 
The breezy fingers of the wind, 
How cool and moist they were !" 

It is of the utmost importance that improper imagina- 
tive works should be kept away from growing minds. 

This cannot be done by prohibits. It cannot be said, 
"Don't read the ' Terrible Exploits of Bill Jones, the 
Outlaw/" Nothing will make it more certain that it 
will be read. Start early with interesting works of im- 
agination, and keep it up. Eternal vigilance is the 
price of a healthy imagination culture. 

Satisfy the imagination of children whenever it is 
possible to do so. 

This native faculty will he appeased somehow, some- 
where, some time. Go before and answer its questions, or 
else it will create fancies, thoughts, and imaginings, the 
like of which are not found either on the earth or above 
it, and many of which, if nurtured, will lead them to 
certain ruin. 



IMAGINATION IN ITS MATURITY. i [3 



IMAGINATION IN ITS MATURITY. 

A few instances will illustrate how vivid imagination 
often is, and what a power it may be made in mental 
development. 

" What does God send the snow for ?" asked one little 
girl of another. "Why, the snow-flakes are the um- 
brellas He covers His flowers with," was the answer. 

The measles invaded a household where there were 
many children. The first child to sicken was given a 
box of paints and some prints to color, to amuse himself 
in bed. e ' I wish I could get the measles, said a younger 
brother, "then I could have a paint-box too." In due 
time he caught the infection and was also given a box 
of paints. "Papa," said the little one wearily, after 
being a couple of days in bed, "you can take the paint- 
box away : I don't want the measles." In the child's 
thoughts there was a connection between the box of 
paints and the measles. It is an interesting incident, 
not only in showing the working of imagination in chil- 
dren but the power of early association in tracing effects 
to their causes. 

There was a little girl who believed that the stars 
were the children of the moon. Her mother wanted 



114 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

her to go to bed one night before she felt quite sleepy 
enough to go willingly. "But the moon hasn't sent 
her children to bed yet/' objected the little astronomer, 
petulantly. It so happened that a storm was brewing 
and heavy clouds were gathering in the heavens. " Go 
and see if she hasn't/' said her mother. The little head 
was immediately popped out of window, and the sky was 
scanned eagerly. " Well, I guess I'll have to go to bed 
now/' she said after the survey; " the moon is covering 
up her children and tucking them in." 

AN ANALYSIS. 

Fancy collects materials for the imagination, conse- 
quently the latter presupposes the former, but the for- 
mer does not necessarily suppose the latter. The power 
of fancy supplies the poet with metaphorical language, 
but imagination creates the complex scenes which he 
describes. We can say a "rich fancy," but not a "rich 
imagination." We can call the imagination "sublime," 
but not "luxuriant." This distinction is important. 

The imagination does not abstract or generalize, it 
only supplies materials for these processes according to 
the laws of association. Without imagination the scien- 
tist could do nothing; with only an imagination he could 
do nothing. Abstraction, 'generalization, and taste sup- 
ply the fancy, and this arranges materials for the imag- 
ination. It follows, therefore, that real imagination can 
only be obtained through the cultivation of the reflect- 
ive powers. Fancy is the proper name for what is called 
imagination in young children ; but, since they early 



IMA GIN A TION IN ITS MA TURITY. 1 1 5 

commence to generalize, a true imagination soon begins 
to show itself. At first fancy predominates, but soon 
it begins to take its subordinate place. 

Imagination is the result of education : it is not an 
original endowment of the mind. Men differ in the 
strength of this power because they differ in the strength 
of the elements that form it; and since the faculties of 
abstraction, generalization, and memory can be greatly 
cultivated by proper education, it follows, as an axiom, 
that a good imagination must depend upon education. 
It will be seen that the possession of a good imagination 
marks the highest type of mind. Inventors, mathema- 
ticians, prose writers, and orators are, as much entitled 
to be called men of genius, and imaginative, as poets, 
painters, and orators. 

Imagination has a powerful influence on the formation 
of character. By it our ideals are formed. A young 
person sets out in life with his ideal of perfection and 
happiness. If it consists of sensuous pleasures, he will 
make every effort to gratify his appetites; but if he 
places before himself a high standard of moral excellence, 
he will exert himself to attain to it. Moral duties and 
religious exercises are powerfully influenced by the im- 
agination. In the Christian religion the life and works 
of Christ are constantly held up before the world. His 
followers see Him in all the situations in which he was 
placed. A Christian will at once appreciate the force 
of this assertion and admit its powerful effect on human 
actions. Place before a child an ideal good, clearly, 
forcibly, and frequently, and it will soon begin to exert 
itself to attain to it. Some philosophers have gone so 



Il6 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

far as to claim that all moral good was centred in the 
imagination. This is not so. There is a sense of right 
and wrong instinctive in the human soul which no imag- 
ination can destroy ; but it is neverthless true that 
from the imagination of man come some of the most 
powerful moral forces our natures are capable of receiv- 
ing. 

Teachers will see the important bearing of all this on 
methods of moral instruction. 



Ideals, like notions, are particular and general. Thus, in the mind of Mil- 
ton there existed a general idea of what a poem should be, in order to real- 
ize, in greater or less perfection, the pure ideas of reason. At the same time 
there existed a particular ideal of the manner in which the elements enter- 
ing into that poem should be blended, in order, in that particular produc- 
tion, to realize those ideals. 

Ideals are not confined to any one class of ideas. Every individual, in all 
departments of human action, has an ideal of the form to which the objects 
of his action .should be brought into conformity, and in the light of which 
he judges of all productions which meet his eye. Ideas of fitness, of the 
true, the perfect, and the good, no less than the idea of the beautiful, are the 
archetypes of ideals. 

As immediate archetypes between particular conceptions and universal 
and necessary ideas, ideals constitute the foundation of endless progression 
in the development of the mental powers. Every new elevation which the 
intelligence gains presents new conceptions of particular objects, and con- 
sequently new elements of thought. Every new element of thought involves 
a new ideal, more nearly approaching the perfect and the absolute, and thus 
lays the foundation for fresh activity, and further progress in the march of 
mind. Sometimes, also, ideals degenerate, and thus the foundation is laid 
for the backward movements of society. It is hardly necessary to add that 
the imagination is the sole originator of ideals. To form such conceptions 
is not a function of reason, nor of the understanding or judgment. It re- 
mains, then, as the exclusive function of the imagination.— Asa Mahan. 



THE EDUCATION OF THE MORAL SENSE. 117 



chapter XXM. 

THE EDUCATION OF THE MORAL SENSE. 

It has been said that " morals can be taught as other 
sciences more or less exact are taught, by specially pre- 
pared text-books and oral teaching adapted to different 
ages." In other words, according to this writer, mor- 
als should be placed on the same plane as chemistry, 
grammar, and geology, and we suppose he would expect 
lessons to be learned and recited in them at stated times. 
This would secure a knowledge of the principles of 
moral philosophy, but it would not be effective in mak- 
ing students better. The object of teaching morals in 
schools is to make pupils good, — to instil in the young 
mind a deep and abiding love of the true and the right 
— to influence the conduct through all after-life. The 
study of the science of dogmatic theology or the exegesis 
of the New Testament is no more likely to make good 
men than the study of the science of mineralogy or 
palaeontology. Let us take the discussion of the ulti- 
mate ground of right as an example. Dr. Peabody 
claims that it is "fitness/' Adam Smith held that 
" sympathy is its sole standard and basis." A large class 
of philosophers believe that the Bible or the church is the 



Il8 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

only guide we have for determining the moral character 
of any human act. We may theorize and speculate 
and not become capable of better thinking and feeling. 
There is no moral elevation, no uplifting force, in all this 
investigation. It is right enough in university halls, 
but such dogmatism has no place in the public school. 
Did Arnold teach morals by a text-book ? His great, 
loving, sympathetic, reverent soul "was impacted into 
the very body of all his teaching." When the "prin- 
cipal thing about a man is religion," — in other words, 
when his soul is filled with love to God and his fellow- 
beings, — he will teach far more than any text-book on 
morals, or any formal religious instruction, can ever ac- 
complish. 

We conclude that we cannot fix good moral ideas in 
the minds of pupils oy formal lessons from text-books. 

The moral sense is at first weak. An infant has no 
conscientious scruples about appropriating whatever it 
happens to want, and has but little gratitude, sympathy, 
love, or idea of right and truth ; and is naturally selfish, 
greedy, and impatient of restraint. These characteris- 
tics show themselves at an early period in the lives of 
most children. The most important question the moth- 
er and teacher can answer is, What is the first step 
in the moral education of this human being ? The 
answer unquestionably is, the education of obedience to 
the demands of truth. 

Plato says, "Truth is the beginning of every good 
thing, both in heaven and on earth." In the training 
of children nothing is easier than to place before them 
motives of untruthfulness. A harsh voice, an accusa- 



THE EDUCATION OF THE MORAL SENSE. II9 

tion, an unsympathetic manner, and the fear of pun- 
ishment will drive almost any child into stubborn un- 
truthfulness, which very soon will become settled into a 
life-long habit. The greatest care is needed in order to 
fix the practice of entire open-heartedness and frankness 
in the nature. Suppose a child has broken a china cup; 
will he confess the fault if he knows that he is certain to 
receive punishment for his sin ? 

There are few boys, Mrs. Malleson says, " made of such 
naturally heroic stuff as the late Sir Henry Lawrence, 
who, when enticed by his school-fellows to follow their 
example and throw a ball in dangerous proximity to a 
forbidden window, went straight to his master, doubt- 
less amid roars of laughter, says his biographer, with ' I 
have come to say, sir, I have broken a window/ We 
have no right to expect heroism from average young 
creatures yet unfledged in morality." 

The habit of exaggeration is very strong in young 
children. It is not uncommon for them to say, " I saw 
twenty men running down the street," when there 
might not have been more than three, at most not more 
than five. 

The motives for untruthfulness are so many, it would 
be impossible to discuss them on this page, nor would 
it be profitable to do so. The one important question 
to be answered by every teacher is, How shall my 
children be trained to tell the truth, always f Herbert 
Spencer's answer is that when a child tells an untruth, 
refuse it credence for a given period. Let it under- 
stand the consequences of its sin in a want of confidence. 
But another and better way is to trust the child. 



120 MIND-STUDIES FOR YOUNG TEACHERS. 

Mrs. Malleson tells of a little girl of three or four who found the first 
use of her tooth-brush very irksome, and when her mother asked her one 
day whether she had brushed her teeth, answered "Yes" when she had 
neglected the duty. Her mother assumed to believe her, as a matter of 
course; but the child immediately woke to a sense that she was untruthful 
to her mother who had trusted her. She straightway ran to her room for 
the duty she hated, and afterwards fully deserved the trust she had abused. 
Mrs. Malleson also tells of a cook who said of her mistress, "You cannot 
tell lies to Mrs. ; she always believes you." She also quotes an inci- 
dent of Canon Farrar. He said in an address: "At Harrow two boys 
brought me exercises marked by the same grotesque mistakes. It seemed 
certain that those exercises could not have been done independently. Both 
boys assured me that there had been no copying. One whom I had considered 
a boy of high morale assured me of this again and again with passionate 
earnestness. I said to him, ' If I were to send up those two exercises to any 
jury in England, they would say that these resemblances could not be 
accidental, except by something almost like a miracle. But you both 
tell me that you have not copied. I cannot believe you would lie to 
me. I must suppose that there has been some extraordinary accident. I 
shall say no more. Years after, that boy, then a monitor, said to me : 
* Sir, do you remember that exercise in the fourth form ? ' ' Yes,' I said. 
4 Well, sir, I told you a lie. It was copied. You believed me, and the re- 
membrance of that lie has remained with me and pained me ever since.' I 
am inclined to think," says Canon Farrar, " that boy was more effectually 
taught and more effectually punished than if I had refused to accept his 
protests." 

A child must have courage. This means more than 
an ability to defend one's self ; it means strength to fol- 
low the dictates of conscience. It is safe to say that 
conscience rests on a sense of obligation. How con- 
science comes into our constitution cannot here be dis- 
cussed, but all children have it to a greater or less de- 
gree. The question to be settled by teachers is, How 
can it be strengthened so as to become dominant in the 
human soul? We answer, by increasing the sense of 
obligation, and cultivating courage to folloio the com- 
mands that our nature tells us are right. 



INDEX 



PAGE 

A BSTRACT Thinking, Facul- 

- tx ties used in 57 

Abstraction 58 

New Facts in 49 

Methods of Developing . . 51 

Affections 91 

and Desires 44 

Agony 88 

Anecdote of Webster 99 

Analysis of Imagination 114 

Appetites 91 

Association 46-58 

Association of Ideas, Sully on 15 

Attention 41 

Objective . 35 

Subjective 35 

T2ILIOUS Temperament.... 26 

J - > Brown on Sensibilities 88 

Byron, Quotations from 89 

CHILD-LIFE, First Stage. . . . 
Second Stage 105 

Imagination in 105 

Children, Clarke on Training. 20 
Clarke on Educating the Per- 
ceptive Powers 47 

on Training Children ... 20 

on Strength of Will 77 

Conception 57 

Haven on 64 

Conceptive, Subjective to the. 61 

Conclusions, Drawing 60 

Cultivating the Imagination. . . 106 
Curiosity, a Mind-incentive — 17 
"DEFINITION of Intellect .... 22 

±J of Feelings 22 

of Judgment 22 

of Reasoning 22 

of Sensibility 22 

of Will 22 

of Volition 22 

Desires 44, 91 

and Affections 44 

Development, Human 11 

First Stage 9 

Sully on Mental 8 

Directions for Training Will ... 75 

Diseases of the Will 71 

Mental 80 

Discovery, Joy of 19 

Discrimination 45 

Disordered Memory, Incidents 

in 82-85 

Drawing Conclusions, Spencer 60 

TpARLY Influences 104 

- Li Education, Periods in 12 

Temperaments in — . . 28 

of the Moral Sense 117 

Educating Perceptive Powers. 47 

Emotions 44, 88, 91 

Haven on.. , — ,,,, 44 



PAGE 

Examination, Self- 97 

Excess of Will-power 74 

Experiments in Cultivating the 

Imagination 106 

TRACTS in Abstraction 49 

-*- in Mind-study 3 

Faculties in Abstract Thinking 57 

Feelings 91 

Defined 22 

First Lessons in Mind-growth.. 10 
Forming Notions, Mahan on. . . 56 
Four Stages in Development. . 11 

GEOGRAPHY, Imagination 
in 110 

Grief 88 

Growth of the Intellect, Sully 8 

Growth, First Lessons in Mind- 10 

Stages of Mind- 7 

HABITS in Relation to the 
Will 77 

Hamilton on Recollection 87 

Haven on Conception 64 

on Emotions 44 

on Sensibilities 88 

on Sympathy — , 

Hickok on Sensibilities 88 

Hints on the Temperaments. . . 29 

History, Imagination Ill 

How to Study Mind 1 

Human Development 11 

TDEAS 21 

-*- Association of 15 

Relation between 62 

Ideals 115 

Mahan on 116 

Imagination, Analysis of 114 

Experiments Cultivating 106 

in Geography 110 

in History Ill 

in its Maturity 110 

in Primary Classes 109 

Incentive, Curiosity a Mind- ... 17 
Joy of Discovery a Mind- 19 

Incentives of the Mind 16 

Incidents Disordered Memory.82-85 

Influences, Early 104 

Intellect, Defined 22 

Growthof 8 

TOY of Discovery 19 

" Judgment 58 

Defined 22 

KNOWING in Reference to 
the Will 69 

Knowledge, Sensibilities and.. 5 

True Order 65 

Kinds of Memory 78 

T ACK of Will-power 71 

-^ Lessons in Mind-growth.. 10 

Life, Child- 105 

Lymphatic Temperament ..... 27 



122 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

IVfAHAN on Forming Notions 56 

±y± onldeals 116 

on Sensibility. ^88 

Maturity, Imagination in T13 

McCosh on Powers of the Mind 23 

Memory 57 

Kiudsof 13,78 

Value of a Verbal 14 

Incidents in Disordered. 82-85 

One Kind often Wanting 79 

Mental Development, Sully on 8 

Diseases. 80 

What Teachers shouldDo 81 
Methods of Training the Sensi- 
bilities 97 

Mind, How to Study 1 

An Outline of 4 

Reached through Senses. 13 

Study, A Few Facts in. . . 3 

A Few Questions in. . . .3, 93 

Growth, Stages of 7 

First Lessons in 10 

Incentives 16 

Incentive, Curiosity a 17 

Powers of the : . 23 

Moral Sense, Education of. ... 117 
Morality, Relation of Sensibil- 
ities to 101 

Motives 43 

TVTERVOUS Temperament ... 25 
-^ Notions, Mahan on Forming 56 

(OBJECTIVE Attention 35 

^ Order of Knowledge 65 

Outline of the Mind 4 

of the Sensibilities 88 

PERCEPTIVE Powers 47 

x Perfect Teacher, The 96 

Perception 45 

Periods in School Education. . . 12 

Personating 109 

Power, Excess of Will- 74 

Lack of Will- 71 

Powers of the Mind, McCosh. 23 
Primary Classes, Imagination. 109 

Principles, A Few Settled 21 

Propensities 91 

QUALITIES 55 
Questions in Mind-study. .3, 93 

Quotation from Byron 89 

T>EASON,The 59 

xt Reasoning Defined 22 

Recollecting 46 

Recollection, Hamilton on 87 

Reflection 58 

Relations between Ideas. 62 

Relation of Sensibilities to 

Knowledge and Will 70 

of Sensibilities to Morality 101 

Remorse 88 

Q ANGUINE Temperament... 26 
*^ School Education, Periods 12 



PAGE 

Second Stage in Child-life. -.... 105 

Self-examination 97 

Selfishness— Sympathy 102 

Sense, Education of the Moral. 117 

Senses, Training the 33-39 

Mind Reached through . . 13 

Sensibility Defined 22 

Sensibilities, Naming of the. . . 96 

Methods of Training the. 97 

Relation to Morality 101 

Relation of Knowledge. . 70 

in Relation to the Will . . 91 

An Outline 88 

Brown on 88 

Upham on 70 

Haven on 88 

Sensibilities, Hickok on 88 

Mahan on 88 

Spencer on Drawing Conclu- 
sions 60 

Stages of Mind-growth 7 

Strength of Will, Clarke on . . 77 

Study, How to Study Mind ... 1 

Subjective to the Conceptive. . 61 

Attention 35 

Suggestions on Training the 

Senses 36 

Sully on Mental Development 8 

on Growth of Intellect.. 8 

on Association of Ideas. . 15 

Sympathy— Selfishness 89, 102 

Haven on 100 

rr EACHER, A Perfect 96 

- 1 - Teachers, Hints to 29 

Temperaments 24 

Bilious 26 

Lymphatic 27 

Nervous 25 

Sanguine 26 

Hickok on 32 

in Education 28 

Hints to Teachers 29 

Training the Senses 37-39 

Children, Clarke on 20 

Thinking, Abstract 57 

UPHAM on Early Influences. 104 

on the Sensibilities 70 

T7ALUE of a Verbal Memory. 14 

" Verbal Memory, Value of 14 

Volition Defined 22 

T\7EBSTER, an Anecdote of. 99 

vv Will 65 

Defined 22 

Directions in Training ... 75 

Diseases of 71 

Knowing in Reference to 69 

Power, Book of 71 

Excess of 74 

Relation of Sensibilities 70, 91 

Relation of Habits to . : . . 77 

Strength of, Clarke ou. . 77 



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